The lamb trade has jumped in the last week by 14p/kg to £2.11/kg, putting a 44kg lamb to over £90/head.

Scottish abattoirs look to pay between £3.80 to £3.90/kg for R grade continental carcase, up to 400kg. The official AHDB price for R4L steers is £3.95/kg, which is up 1p/kg.

R4L heifers are unchanged at £3.94/kg and same-grade young bulls rose 5p/kg to an official AHDB price of £3.80/kg.

Cows grading O-4L were reported at £2.88/kg, which is the same price as last week.

Store cattle numbers fell again by around 1,000 to 2,412 sold through the live ring.

The national average dropped £14/head to £946/head.

Prime lamb was up £6/head in the live ring.

Marts sold 22,229 prime lambs the ring, a rise of 1,741.

Despite higher numbers, the average price rose by 14p/kg, with an average of £2.11/kg for medium-weight lambs.

Heavy lambs also rose by 11p/kg to average £2.08/kg.

AHDB prices

Meanwhile, the UK average price published by the AHDB sits at £4.43/kg deadweight for R grade lambs, which is a fall of 17p/kg. The live ring sold nearly 700 fewer cull ewes than the previous week, with 9,080 trading in Scotland.

The price on the week fell £1.56/head to £62.21/head.

The store lamb season continues, with 33,636 lambs sold in Scotland, with an average price of £62.30/head, which is up 76p/head.

The biggest sale of the week was again held at Dingwall Mart, where nearly 12,000 lambs were traded.

UA Stirling sold nearly 7,000 lambs, Thainstone sold over 5,000, the Caledonian sold 2,600, Huntly sold 2,294 and Lanark and Castle Douglas both sold around 1,500.

The average price of store lambs was £58/head in Dingwall, £63/head in United Auctions, £69/head at Thainstone, £57/head at the Caledonian, £69/head at Huntly, £52/head at Lanark and £71/head at Castle Douglas

Across Scotland, continental and Suffolk lambs are commanding around £69/head, while Cheviots averaged £54/head and Blackfaces £52/head.

Meanwhile new figures from the European Commission shows that EU beef production fell 5% and exports fell by 4% in the first five months of 2020.