Scottish lamb continues its strong trade with most abattoir offering over £6.00/kg this week for R grading carcases up to 22kg.

Prime sales in marts remain strong with most sales averaging between £2.73/kg to close to £2.83kg liveweight. The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for R3L lambs across the UK is £6.02/kg which is up 2p/kg for the week ending 27 November.

Dingwall sold 2,516 store lambs for an average of £75/head.

The auctioneer said: “All classes cashed in dearer than the extreme values that were witnessed in this centre a fortnight ago.”

The cull ewe price in Scotland averaged £75/head for the week ending 27 November down £4 for the 7,880 sheep sold.

Feeding ewes at Thainstone sold to an average of £87/head.

Beef price

The beef price in Scotland has cooled this week, with some abattoirs cutting the price by 5p/kg. This leaves most slaughterhouses offering between £4.13/kg and £4.18/kg for R grading continental steers.

The AHDB beef price for an R4L steer is up 2p to £4.24/kg. Same-grade heifers were £4.21/kg, down 3p. The young bull price is £4.09/kg deadweight, up 7p. Cows grading O-4L were £2.75/kg, down 5p on the week.

Thainstone sold 533 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.27/kg, down 4p, and heifers £2.22/kg, up 2p. They also sold 309 cast cows, with beef bred finished cows averaging £1,287/head, down £14. Beef feeding cows averaged £958/head, down £28, and light boning cows were £591/head, up £6. Dairy cows averaged £990 and the 19 older bulls averaged £1,103/head.

United Auctions sold 961 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.21/kg, down 5p, and heifers £2.11/kg, unchanged on the week.

Caledonian Mart in Stirling sold 230 store cattle where steers averaged £2.21/kg. The top price was £2,000 for a Parthenaise heifer weighing 454kg.

Forfar Mart held a breeding cattle sale, which included the dispersal of Chassar, Chamberlain Knowe. The dispersal sold to £1,150 for a Simmental cow with bull calf at foot. A Simmental cow with a heifer calf sold for £780. Simmental cows which had been running with the bull in summer went for between £720 and £1,000/head. The Simmental bull sold for £980.

Cull cows in Scotland average £1.26/kg liveweight for beef-bred cows, which is up 3p on the week and 99p/kg for dairy-bred cows, up 9p. Steers in the prime ring averaged £2.29/kg, down 18p, and heifers £2.37/kg, down 3p.

Crop sale

At Carlisle’s crop sale, mini hestons of wheat straw were selling at £86/t, up £3. Round bales of oat straw sold at £15/bale, down £8/bale. Barley straw was £17/bale, down £9.