Beef prices in Scotland seem to be rooted at £3.30 to £3.35/kg for an R grade continental steer, but some abattoirs are rumoured to be raising prices next week.

Store cattle seem to have cooled compared with last year, with 400kg heifers back around £50/head.

The official AHDB price rose to £3.43/kg for an R4L steer in Scotland for the week ending 2 May, which is a rise of 1p/kg.

R4L grade heifers were reported by the AHDB at £3.43/kg, a fall of 1p/kg, with same-grade young bulls down 5p to £3.25/kg. This puts bulls around £100/head down compared with 2019.

Cows grading O-4L were up by 7p/kg to £2.40/kg.

The number of store cattle through the live ring was up over 3,000 last week, with 9,117 sold in Scottish marts. Thainstone and United Auctions both sold over 2,000 store cattle, with an average of £934/head and £849/head respectively. The national average was £865/head, down £20/head on the previous week.

Finished old-season lambs in the live ring were trading at £2.06/kg for medium-weight lambs, which is fall of 8p/kg.

Heavier lambs have followed a similar pattern, with prices down 4p/kg to an average of £1.97/kg.

In total, 15,386 lambs were sold through the prime live ring, up 4,173 on the previous week.

One-hundred-and-forty-one new-season lambs were sold through the ring in Scotland with an average price of £2.32/kg down 2p/kg on the week. Meanwhile, 1,730 ewes were sold last week, which is about half of the previous week. The average dropped £1/head to an average price of £73/head.