The Scottish hogget price in abattoirs has dropped to between £5.90/kg and £6.00/kg for R grading carcases up to 22kg.

The live trade also dropped by 5p to 10p, with marts this week averaging around £2.70/kg liveweight.

The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for R3L hogget across the UK is £6.17/kg, which is up 7p/kg for the week ending 1 January.

Between Christmas and new year, United Auctions sold 3,520 hoggets for an average price of £2.70/kg.

Thainstone sold 1,120 hoggets which averaged £2.66/kg, a rise of 8p on the week. The top price was £3.41/kg and £159/head for a Beltex hogget. Hoggets up to 45.5kg averaged £2.68/kg, up 10.5p.

Prime hoggets were dearer on the week

They also sold 383 cull ewes and rams for an average of £105/head and a high of £248/head for continental ewes from Logie Durno, Pitcaple.

Auctioneer Colin Slessor said: “Prime hoggets were dearer on the week, with heavies a much stronger demand at top rates. Ewe numbers were scarce and prices at excellent levels. Mule and Blackface ewes very well bid for.”

Dingwall Mart sold 835 hoggets this week for an average of £2.59/kg. This was up 1p/kg on the week. Heavier hoggets weighing between 45.6kg and 52kg averaged £2.61/kg, with a top price of £2.80/kg.

The cull ewe price in Scotland averaged £94/head, which is up £8 for the 4,685 sheep sold.

Beef price above £4/kg

The beef price appears to have settled at just above £4/kg, with most abattoirs paying between £4.03/kg to £4.11/kg for an R grading continental steer.

The AHDB beef price for an R4L steer is down 5p to £4.13kg. Same-grade heifers were £4.16/kg, down 2p. The young bull price is £3.94kg deadweight, down 5p. Cows grading O-4L were £2.82/kg, which is up 1p on the week.

Heifers in the prime ring averaged £2.74/kg, up 37p. However, only seven were sold in the week between Christmas and new year.

Barley straw was selling for £27 per round bale at Carlisle Mart. Oat straw was £24/bale and wheat straw was £21/bale.

Feed wheat price rise

Tighter global stock has left the UK feed wheat market up 15% on last year, with a price of £223/t at the end of the year. This is a massive 42% up on the five-year average.

The price rise is being driven by international factors, as, domestically, the increased volume harvested in 2021 over 2020 means there is likely to be a wheat surplus of 557,000t in the UK. However, this is down 59% or 816,000t from the five-year average.

Looking across the globe, demand is anticipated to be 9Mt higher than production.

With harvests nearly complete in the southern hemisphere, early indications from the AHDB state that prices are likely to remain somewhat elevated both domestically and globally.