Scottish lamb continues its strong trade, with some abattoirs offering £6.20/kg this week for R grading carcases up to 22kg.

Prime sales in marts remain strong, with most sales averaging between £2.77/kg and £2.87kg liveweight.

The official Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) price for R3L lambs across the UK is £6.20/kg, which is up 18p/kg for the week ending 4 December.

Stirling sold 8,255 store lambs this week, with massive rises in the price. The averages per head for Beltex was £110, up £24; Suffolk £104, up £24; Texel £99, up £23; Mule £93, up £24; Cheviot £92, up £21; and Blackface £83, up £17.

The cull ewe price in Scotland averaged £85/head for last week, up £10 for the 7,290 sheep sold

Quoybrae sold 1,394 store lambs for an average of £81/head. Feeding ewes averaged £92/head.

Thainstone sold 1,734 store lambs for an average of £101/head, with a high price of £156 for a Beltex-cross.

The cull ewe price in Scotland averaged £85/head for last week, up £10 for the 7,290 sheep sold.

Beef price down

The beef price in Scotland is down again this week, with some abattoirs cutting the price by another 5p/kg.

This leaves some slaughterhouses offering £4.05/kg and others as high as £4.13/kg for R grading continental steers.

The AHDB beef price for an R4L steer is down 1p to £4.23/kg. Same-grade heifers were unchanged at £4.21/kg. The young bull price is £4.08/kg deadweight, down 1p. Cows grading O-4L were £2.75/kg, which is unchanged on the week.

United Auctions sold 421 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.23/kg, up 3p, and heifers £2.03/kg, down 8p on the week

Thainstone sold 456 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.27/kg, unchanged, and heifers £2.23/kg, up 1p. The top price per kilo was £2.84 for a pen of four 342kg Charolais-cross steers. The highest price per head was £1,480 for a 650kg Limousin steer.

United Auctions sold 421 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.23/kg, up 3p, and heifers £2.03/kg, down 8p on the week. Huntly Mart sold steers for £2.10/kg and heifers at £2.09/kg.

Lanark sold 254 store cattle, with steers averaging £2.07/kg and a top price of £1,240 for a 620kg Shorthorn. Heifers sold for an average of £2.02/kg and a top price of £1,450 for a 682kg Aberdeen Angus.

Cull cows in Scotland averaged £1.31/kg liveweight for beef-bred cows, up 5p on the week. and £1/kg for dairy bred cows, up 1p. At Thainstone Mart, beef-finished cows averaged £1,317/head, up £30 on the week; feeding cows averaged £964/head, up £5; and boning cows averaged £606, also up £5.

Steers in the prime ring averaged £2.45/kg, up 16p, and heifers £2.45/kg, up 8p.

Crop sale

At Carlisle’s crop sale, mini hestons of wheat straw were selling at £86/t for the second week running. Barley straw was £26/bale, up £6. Hay was selling at £110/t in mini heston bales.