Supplies of finished lambs have started to tighten and meat processors have reacted this week to increase prices paid. Base prices for today (Thursday) start from €4.30/kg at the larger export plants to €4.50/kg at Moyvalley and €4.55/kg at Ballon Meats.

With numbers tightening, a number of factories were reportedly short of lambs on Monday. Factory agents moved quickly to increase prices with more lambs being bought from a base of €4.60/kg and deals at €4.65/kg common in the west and midlands. There were some deals negotiated that increased carcase limits to 23kg.

There were increasing reports of €4.70/kg being paid to 22.5kg at the same plants on Wednesday, with €4.65/kg becoming freely available to individual sellers and supply groups at western plants.

IFA National Sheep Committee chairman John Lynskey said that the high weekly kills of over 60,000 head recently have removed a lot of lambs from the system and left supplies scarce. He said the weekly kill has exceeded 2013 levels every week since Easter and the 73,000 head kill for week ending 5 October has left the factories chasing lambs this week. This is driving prices upward to €4.70/kg this week.

However, these improved prices are not being reflected evenly around the country. There are a number of lamb supply groups losing out on the increased demand for lambs over the past few weeks.

Group chairmen commented that they feel groups are being taken for granted by processors. They said base quotes are being deliberately held at €4.30/kg so that processors are able to source numbers at lower prices.

Some groups are supplying large numbers of quality assured (QA) in-spec lambs at an all-in price of €4.50/kg to 22kg this week. Lambs weighing over 23kg are being cut to €4.45/kg.

Another point of contention raised by lamb groups is that processing plants are buying lambs from Northern Ireland at €4.60/kg plus haulage.

Northern Ireland: Last week, 10,016 sheep were imported from NI for direct slaughter. This is down 2,000 head on the previous week but is still making up 20% of the Irish lamb kill.

Total imports of northern lambs for the year-to-date is 275,988, which is down 70,000 (26%) on the previous year.

In Northern Ireland, the weekly kill totalled 11,489 – similar to the previous week. For the year-to-date, the northern kill is running 62,000 animals ahead of the previous year at 352,891 sheep.

Prices in NI have also increased on last week, despite processors trying to pull base quotes. Lamb numbers have also tightened, with some plants operating under capacity. Deals of £3.45 to £3.50/kg (€4.64/kg to €4.71/kg including VAT) have been reported this week.