News in-brief from Northern Ireland

Fat lamb prices tumble in NI

Factories have cut lamb quotes by 50p to 70p/kg this week, wiping £10 to £15 off the value of slaughter fit animals.

Quotes now range from 600p to 620p/kg for Thursday’s kill and securing deals beyond these prices has become much more difficult without large numbers of meal finished lambs. Where deals are on offer, they are limited to 630p/kg, making factory lambs worth £132.50 at the 21kg weight limit.

Marts have also seen prices plummet with the main run of factory fit lambs around the £135 mark at the start of the week, before easing to £125 and £130 by Wednesday.

Enzootic Abortion vaccine shortage to continue

The shortage of preventative vaccines for enzootic abortion in sheep will continue into early autumn, Ceva Animal Health has confirmed.

In a statement on the current supply issues, Ceva says it “deeply regrets any inconvenience caused to sheep farmers,” adding that the problem is due to “vaccine batch failure in the manufacturing process”. Supplies of its Cevac Chlamydia vaccine will be affected until August, but stocks will be available by autumn.

MSD Animal Health has also experienced problems within its manufacturing process, resulting in its enzovax vaccine being currently out of stock, although the company is hopeful supplies will be available by late summer.

July closures in marts and plants

Farmers are advised to contact local marts and processing plants about potential holiday closures next week.

Ballymena, Kilrea, Dungannon and Saintfield marts have confirmed they will close over five days from Monday 8 through to Friday 12 July, while Clogher is closed from 9 to 16 July.

Enniskillen Mart has no sheep sale on Wednesday 10 or cattle sale on Thursday 11 July, Omagh has no sales on 13 and 15 July, while Armoy Mart is closed from Monday 8 July to Saturday 13 July. Downpatrick and Markethill marts will close on Saturday 13 July only.

All local meat plants are not operating on Friday 12 July, with Dunbia also closed the following Monday.

New vet at Ai Services

Kerry native, Aoife O’Sullivan has been appointed as Group Veterinary Officer at Ai Services (NI) Ltd.

Aoife is a 2015 veterinary medicine graduate from University College Dublin and takes over from Brian Kennedy, who has been in the post for 36 years.

Ends

Legal threat over English badger cull

Wildlife campaigners have issued a legal threat over the decision to issue new licences for badger culls as part of bovine TB policy in England.

Wild Justice and the Badger Trust have sent a “pre-action protocol letter” to Natural England about its decision to grant nine new supplementary licences and authorise 17 existing licenses.

The argument made is that the decision to issue the licences in May 2024 went against the advice of Natural England’s Director of Science, Dr Peter Brotherton.