Beef price looks steady at between £4.04 and £4.10/kg for R grading continental steers.

For the week ending 15 January, the official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for an R4L steer is down 4p to £4.15/kg.

Same-grade heifers were £4.15/kg, which is down 1p on the week.

The young bull price is £3.99kg deadweight, up 1p. Cows grading O-4L were £2.85/kg, which is unchanged on the week. Well-fleshed cows are making around £3.15/kg.

Northern England’s R4L steer price is up 2p to £4.22/kg, which is 7p/kg more than Scotland. The overall steer price is also 1p higher in northern England than Scotland at £4.11/kg.

Heifers grading R4L are getting £4.21/kg in northern England, which is 6p more than in Scotland.

However the all heifer price is 1p less than Scotland at £4.11/kg.

United Auctions sold 1,284 store cattle last week, with steers averaging £2.29/kg, up 2p, and heifers £2.20/kg, down 6p. Dairy steers averaged £1.81/kg and young bulls were £1.93/kg.

Thainstone sold 1,407 stores, with an average of £2.43/kg for steers, up 5p, and £2.34/kg for heifers, which is the same price as last week.

Ayr Mart sold 834 store cattle, which averaged £2.30/kg or £1,057/head for steers, £2.24/kg or £1,008/head for heifers and £1.71/kg or £826/head for dairy steers.

Prime steers averaged £2.33/kg in the live ring, down 19p, and heifers averaged £2.35/kg, down 13p.

Cull beef-sired cows averaged £1.48/kg, down 1p, and dairy cull cows averaged £1.15/kg, up 6p.

Hogget trade

Scotch hoggets in abattoirs are still between £5.80/kg and £6.00/kg for R grading carcases up to 22kg.

The live trade dropped 5p to 10p, with marts this week averaging between £2.47 and £2.60/kg liveweight.

The AHDB price for R3L hogget across the UK is £6.03/kg, which is down 14p/kg for the week ending 15 January.

United Auctions sold a total of 3,162 hoggets for an average price of £2.57/kg, which is down 7p/kg.

Thainstone sold 1,369 store hoggets for an average of £83/head, down £10.

The cull ewe price in Scotland averaged £98/head, which is up £9 for the 5,242 sheep sold.

Fodder sale

Wheat straw was back a few pounds at Carlisle Mart where bales were selling for between £18 and £23/bale, with mini hestons going for £85/t to £89/t.

Oat straw was selling £18/bale and small bales at £3/bale.

Meanwhile, at ANM in Aberdeenshire, inside stored barley straw bales were selling for £18.50/bale, outside stored bales were making up to £15/bale.

Inside stored large square bales were making £33.50/bale. Haylage sold for £15/bale and silage for £17.50/bale. Spring barley sold for £215/t.