Kildare Chilling is driving the trade for hoggets, with its base quote for Thursday increasing by 30c/kg on last week’s level.

The plant initially raised its base hogget quote on Tuesday to €6.90/kg plus its 10c/kg quality assurance (QA) payment and followed with another 10c/kg for Thursday to €7.00/kg plus 10c/kg QA.

This is setting a new benchmark for other plants, with finishers said to be holding out for similar returns.

The increase in hogget quotes reflects the high level of demand for sheepmeat. Reports indicate that sales were strong for the Easter market and that there is no discernible carryover of product. The purchasing activity of factories gives credence to this statement.

Last week’s sheep kill was recorded at 63,744 head, despite one day’s less processing. To put this in perspective, the kill in the previous weeks was in the region of 64,000 to 67,000 head.

The number of sheep slaughtered in the year to date is running 36,643 head higher, with over 32,000 of this increase stemming from additional hoggets.

Estimates by Bord Bia pointed to a higher carryover of hoggets that could potentially range from 60,000 to 70,000 head.

This means that a significant proportion have passed through the system, while reports indicate that there are sizeable numbers of light and poorer-quality hoggets, many of which are hill types, still on farms.

Factories have cautioned producers that they will enforce cuts of upwards of €2/kg for O1/P1 grading hoggets. This highlights that factories do not want to handle such sheep.

While Kildare Chilling is setting the benchmark for hoggets, the two Irish Country Meats plants in Camolin and Navan are leading the trade for spring lambs with their base quote of €7.85/kg plus 20c/kg QA payment and a higher carcase weight limit of 20.5kg.

This lifts quality assured spring lambs above the €8/kg mark, with plants keen to exhaust all avenues to maximise throughput.

Quotes for ewes are unchanged at a range of €3.30/kg to €3.60/kg.

There remains huge variability in the market, with buyers remaining keen in mart sales for heavy, fleshed ewes and paying prices well in excess of equivalent factory returns.

As such, it is important to continue to weigh up your options and consider price and carcase weight limits ranging from 40kg to 46kg.

Northern Ireland

The trade in Northern Ireland has firmed by 5p/kg for hoggets, with plants quoting a base of £5.85/kg, but paying returns of £6/kg (€6.81/kg) to producers with good negotiating power.

Factories have also started quoting for lamb this week and are offering a base quote of £6.40/kg (€7.26/kg), but, again, are willing to pay 10p/kg higher, with numbers of hoggets and lambs significantly tighter.