On the face of the sheep trade, it looks like prices are steady as she goes. But there are more and more cracks starting to appear in the price ceiling, with some farmers managing to bargain much higher prices than what is currently being quoted.

That said, factory agents are being very selective where these higher prices are being paid and remain cagey. The farmers who are negotiating the higher prices have a number of lambs available for slaughter or are frequent customers. They are securing prices of €4.65/kg to €4.70/kg, but hopes are rising that prices will creep upwards to €4.75/kg in the near future.

Agents will not move on quotes too quickly and are playing a wait-and-see approach it seems with numbers being monitored closely. The kill numbers moved up marginally last week, which has played into factory agents’ hands, giving them more scope to hold base quotes static. The total lamb kill was at 54,911 head last week, up 3,014 head on the same period in 2017.

On the other hand, the strengthening of sterling has made northern lamb imports a shade more expensive and that bit less competitive than they were, compared with domestic supplies. The current exchange rate means €1 equates to 87p sterling. This is down from 89p sterling which was the position for a number of weeks.

In the North, lambs are making £3.70 or the equivalent of €4.47 including 5.4% VAT.

As mentioned, the lamb quotes remain steady in the factories. Of the main export plants, Kildare Chilling leads with its base quote of €4.60/kg excluding bonuses. Kepak is on a base of €4.55/kg and Irish Country Meats also stays the same with its base quote of €4.50/kg.

Moyvalley and Ballon Meats have both held steady with their all-in quotes of €4.60/kg and €4.70/kg respectively.

The majority of farmers killing lambs now are being paid up to 22kg. Farmers are drafting at slighter higher weights now to maximise carcase weight and payment.

Issues with the clean livestock policy are variable. Factory agents say lambs are being presented for killing in a clean state, but there are some exceptions.

Very wet weather forecast for this weekend might have negative consequences in this regard. IFA national sheep chair Sean Dennehy said the IFA will be meeting the Department of Agriculture next week to discuss the clean livestock policy and EID tagging.

Cull ewes

Cull ewe prices are steady, but remain low. Continued high kill numbers are not helping matters. Last week’s kill was 12,678 head, up 774 head on the same period last year. Quotes range from €2.40/kg to €2.60/kg and prices paid are not straying far from quotes.

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