There is much positivity in the beef sector in Scotland, with the deadweight beef price rising 5p to 8p/kg to between £3.87 and £3.90/kg for R grades in many abattoirs and liveweight store prices averaging £2.30/kg in marts.

This latest upturn is yet to be reflected in the official figures which collated prices for the week ending 6 March.

The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for R grading steers for the week ending 27 February is still £3.88/ kg.

Same-grade heifers were £3.89/kg which is down 1p on the week. The young bull price is up 3p/kg to £3.74/kg.

Finished cows were reported by the AHDB at £2.73/kg for an 0-4, which is up 2p/kg on the week.

Across marts in Scotland, beef-bred cows averaged £1.45/kg down 2p/kg and dairy cows averaged £1.11/kg down 1p/kg.

Strong store trade

Caithness Mart had its first big sale of the year with 700 cattle sold this week, as the whole sale averaged £2.58/kg or £1,060 per head.

The sale averaged £2.58/kg for steers and £2.58/kg for heifers.

Meanwhile, Thainstone sold 1,500 store cattle in another strong sale steers averaging £2.51/kg, up 4p/kg, and heifers £2.47/kg, up 3p/kg. Fifteen young bulls were sold for an average of £2.50/kg.

Forfar Mart sold 250 cattle this week, with steers averaging £2.42/kg and heifers £2.39/kg.

United Auctions sold 2,164 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.54/kg, up 11p/kg, dairy steers £1.84/kg, down 1p/kg, heifers £2.46/kg, up 12p/kg, and young bulls £2.07/kg, down 16p/kg.

There was a sale at Lochmaddy in the Outer Hebrides, which saw 25 steers average £2.36/kg and 25 heifers average £2.31/kg.

Hoggets over £3/kg

Some Scottish abattoirs are paying farmers £6.30/kg for R grading hoggets up to 21kg, which is a rise of 10p/kg for this week.

The Monday live sales jumped up again by 5p to 10p/kg, with £2.85/kg at Ayr, £2.87/kg at Lanark and £3.02/kg at St Boswells.

Tuesday’s sales saw similar prices of £2.90-£2.93/kg for hoggets. Across Scotland, the average for the week ending 27 February was £2.83/kg, up 7p/kg for medium weight hoggets.

The official AHDB price for across GB was £6.18/kg for an R3L carcase, which is up 1p/kg.

The ewe price in Scotland is still £77/head for nearly 5,500 sheep sold.

Aberdeen and Northern Marts held a store sheep sale of over 900 lambs, which averaged £83/head and pregnant breeding ewes were averaging £108/head.

Fodder sale

Carlisle’s fodder sale saw barley straw mini Heston bales dropped £3/t to £140/t and round bales selling for £30/bale. Haylage round bales were selling for £18/bale.