Scotch lamb has rocketed 40p/kg to £5.80/kg in many abattoirs this week for R grading carcases up to 22kg.

Prime sales in marts also continue to rise, with prices from £2.62/kg to £2.84kg liveweight.

The average price of a 45kg lamb at Ayr Mart was over £130/head.

The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for R3L lambs across the UK is £5.58/kg, which is up 24p/kg for the week ending 6 November.

The average per head for United Auctions’ sale of store lambs were Beltex £105, up £8; Suffolk £96, up £6; Texel £94, up £5; Mule £97, up £12; Cheviot £71, down £1; and Blackface £69, up £3.

There was a sale of in-lamb sheep at Crewelands farm conducted by Lawrie and Symington.

The sheep came from nine flocks, with the 86 gimmers averaging £1,592, the aged ewes £1,403 and the 25 ewe lambs £1,174.

The top price was £10,000 for a gimmer from the Crewelands flock, with the final bid coming online from McCauley Suffolks in the USA.

The cull ewe price in Scotland averaged £79/head for the week ending 6 November, up £7.50/head.

Thainstone sold 1,100 feeding ewes and rams which averaged £72/head.

Beef stability

Beef farmers can expect to get paid between £4.10/kg and £4.20/kg for their R grading continental steers again this week.

The AHDB beef price for an R4L steer is unchanged at £4.23/kg. Same-grade heifers were £4.21/kg, down 1p.

The young bull price is £4.04/kg deadweight, down 6p/kg. Cows grading O-4L were unchained at £2.84/kg up 1p.

United Auctions sold 972 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.24/kg, up 4p, and heifers £2.17/kg, up 2p.

Thainstone sold 1,008 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.37/kg, up 7p, and heifers £2.29/kg, up 3p.

Cull cows in Scotland average £1.20/kg liveweight for beef-bred cows, which is down 5p/kg, and 85p/kg for dairy-bred cows, which is also down 5p.

Beef finished cows at Thainstone averaged £1,258/head, while beef feeding cows were £1,001/head.

Boning cows were £625/head and bulls were £932/head.

Fodder sale

Carlisle sold wheat straw mini hestons at £72/t and round bales sold at £17/bale. Oat bales were the same price, while barley straw was at £13/bale.

Kill challenge

Scotland is still suffering from staff shortages in abattoirs. This is leaving farmers with cancelled orders at short notice. The reduced capacity has contributed to a clean cattle kill of around 6,000 head, which is much lower than usual in the run-up to Christmas.