Cattle prices paid by abattoirs were stand-on this week, with farmers getting between £3.60 and £3.65/kg for an R4L steer. The official AHDB reported price rose 5p/kg to £3.66/kg for an R4L steer as expected. This put a premium over the northern English price of 10p/kg for the same grade cattle.

Heifers are reported by the AHDB at 2p/kg more than steers for an R4L. Deadweight cow prices droped 1p/kg to £2.73/kg for an O-4L carcase, which is 4p/kg more than northern England.

Abattoirs have dropped their lamb price this week, with base price for an R3L sitting at £4.50/kg. The official lamb price rose 2p/kg for an R3L to £4.70/kg across GB, with new-season lambs up 7p/kg to £5.15/kg.

The live market dipped again by 4p/kg to £2.03/kg for medium-weight lambs. Heavier lambs dropped 5p/kg to £1.85/kg liveweight. Numbers of old-season lambs sold through the live ring fell back significantly as supply starts to dwindle as the 2018-born animals come to an end. Numbers were 12,290 head, which was over 6,000 down on the week.

Numbers of new-season lambs sold through the live ring was 261. The two biggest sales were at United Auctions and Ayr, with prices back 20p/kg to £2.41/kg. Cast ewes through the ring were stand-on for the week at 4,564, as the average price dropped £1/head to £69/head.

Meanwhile, looking across the globe, Meat Livestock Australia is reporting that beef production in 2019 is projected to fall by 2.2m tonnes carcase weight equivalent (CWE), which represents a fall of 3% on the year. So far, 2019 has been a very challenging year for cattle producers across Australia. Weather conditions have been a tale of two halves, with persistent dryness through many of the cattle-producing regions and unprecedented flooding in northwest Queensland.