The Scottish beef price is continuing to fall, with abattoirs paying £4.05/kg for an R grade steer, which is down 5p on the week. This is still well above the price of £3.70/kg last year at the start of June.

The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) Scottish beef price for an R4L steer is £4.17/kg, which is down 4p/kg.

Same-grade heifers were £4.18/kg, which is down 5p on the week. The young bull price fell 6p to £4.06/kg deadweight.

Finished cows were reported by the AHDB at £3.00/kg for an 0-4, which is unchanged on the week. The liveweight price for cull cows for Scotland is £1.41/kg at the moment, which is down 7p/on the week.

Numbers in store sales look to be slowing down, with Thainstone selling 758 store cattle last Friday, with steers averaging £2.36/kg, down 17p on the week, and heifers at £2.29/kg, down 7p/kg.

United Auctions sold 745 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.34/kg, down 6p/kg, and heifers averaging £2.34/kg, down 4p/kg. They also sold 62 dairy steers for £2/kg and 15 young bulls for £2.09/kg.

Lanark Mart held their fortnightly sale on Tuesday where steers averaged £2.27/kg and heifers £2.16/kg. Dingwall sold 220 store cattle with steers averaging £2.50/kg and heifers £2.41/kg.

Tightness of supply looks to be a pattern, with UK figures showing a decline in the total bovine herd of 0.8% to 7.7m cattle comparing April this year with last.

Lamb price

Scottish abattoirs are still paying over £6.60/kg for good grading hoggets, but the quality of stock is very mixed as farmers look to clear fields.

The live ring for hoggets fell again, with Ayr averaging £2.23/kg, Lanark £2.48/kg and St Boswells £2.12/kg. Numbers are dwindling as the season for hoggets comes to a close.

Furthermore, if the incisor teeth come through the hogget’s gums, it will be classed as an adult sheep in the abattoir, which usually incurs a heavy discount. The spring lamb sold at Monday’s markets were going for £3.30/kg to £3.50/kg.

United Auctions last Thursday sold 541 spring lambs for an average of £3.20/kg, down 3p/kg, and 1,563 prime hoggets to an average of £2.40/kg, which is down 25p/kg.

Across Scotland, the average for the week ending 29 May was £2.47/kg for the 3,560 medium-weight hoggets. New-season lambs are making £3.27/kg liveweight, up 7p/kg for the 1,840 that were sold last week.

The AHDB price for across GB for last week was £6.25/kg for an R3L carcase hogget, down 37p/kg for the just under 6,000 slaughtered. The new-season lamb price is £6.61/kg, down 7p/kg for an R3L for over 30,000 killed, up 8,500 on the week. The ewe price in Scotland is £95/head, up £9 on the week for just over 3,300 sold.