Farmers can expect over £4.50/kg for R grade lambs under 21kg in Scottish abattoirs. This is a jump of 10p/kg in the last 10 days.

Across the live markets, the price of medium-weight lambs is around £2.00/kg to £2.10/kg.

Ayr Mart on Monday sold medium-weight lambs to an average of £2.07/kg, with St Boswells Mart averaging £2.11/kg.

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However, Tuesday saw lower prices in Dingwall, which averaged £1.91/kg for lambs weighing 39kg to 45kg.

Heavier lambs look to be making around 10p/kg less than medium-weights, as Thainstone last Thursday average £1.94/kg for bigger lambs.

The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for SQQ lamb was £4.49/kg deadweight for R grading lambs.

A total of 48,305 lambs were slaughtered in Britain, which is up by 1,223 on the week.

Store lambs

The store lamb trade continues to strengthen. United Auctions saw price rises for Cheviot and Mule store lambs over £4/head to an average of £65.60 and £60.27 respectively.

Beltex-cross lambs averaged £82/head, Texel-cross averaged £73/head and Blackfaces made £58/head.

Thainstone sold nearly 2,000 store lambs, where mainland lambs made £65.39/head and island lambs made £54.61/head.

Fat ewes are making around £63/head on average across Scotland, which is up £4/head on the week.

Clean beef price rising

The cattle price also saw a rise this week, with abattoirs paying over £3.80/kg for an R grade continental steer.

The official AHDB price for R grading steers for the week ending 7 November was £3.90/kg, up 2p/kg on the week.

Same-grade heifers and young bulls didn’t change on the week and stayed at £3.89/kg and £3.74/kg respectively.

Abattoir quotes for cows range from £2.65/kg to £2.80/kg for fleshier R grades.

The AHDB official price is £2.57/kg for an O-4L carcase, which is down 2p/kg.

Store cattle strength

Store cattle remain a strong trade in Scotland, with an all-average price per head of £965 for 12- to 18-month-old steers.

Younger stores from six to 12 months of age are an average of £813/head.

Ayr Mart this week averaged £2.28/kg for steers weighing between 465kg to 555kg and same-weight heifers averaged £2.30/kg.

Dingwall Mart averaged £2.10 for medium-weight steers and £2.13/kg for heifers.

Last Friday, the sale at Thainstone sold nearly 1,000 cattle, where steers and heifers averaged £2.30/kg, which was up 5p/kg and 4p/kg respectively on the week.

Last Wednesday, United Auctions in Stirling sold 753 store cattle to an average price of £2.21/kg.