Last week’s sheep kill figure of 74,342 head reflects the strength in demand fuelled by this week’s Islamic festival of Eid al-Adha.

Throughput has been steadily rising ahead of the festival, which starts on Thursday 30 July and finishes next Monday 3 August and last week’s kill increased by 6,779 head on the previous week.

Factories have continued to operate at close to maximum capacity for the first three days of this week and many plants anticipate a similar kill figure for this week.

Numbers have continued to come strongly on to the market with producers looking to take advantage of the strong demand and higher prices paid of late.

Lambs traded since the end of last week and over the weekend averaged in the region of €5.40/kg to €5.50/kg for individual sellers while those trading in groups have secured as high as €5.65/kg to €5.70/kg or higher when all bonuses and allowances on transport are taken into account.

Factories have moved to try to ease prices back, with many dropping quotes at the start of the week by 10c/kg and reducing by another 10c/kg for Thursday.

Highest base

Dawn Meats are offering the highest base quote of €5.20/kg plus their 10c/kg quality assurance bonus (QA) while Kepak are offering similar for QA lamb with a base of €5.15/kg plus 15c/kg QA.

The two ICM plants in Camolin and Navan, meanwhile, are trying to inflict much heavier price cuts and have dropped their base quote by 30c/kg on last week to €5.00/kg plus 10c/kg QA.

Kildare Chilling is not quoting for Thursday.

The Northern trade has eased marginally but is holding relatively strong. Quotes for Thursday have reduced 10p/kg to £4.60/kg. This equates to €5.06/kg at 90.8p to the euro.

Plants in the North are also working at close to peak activity.

Last week’s lamb/hogget kill was recorded at 11,808 head, which is similar to the corresponding week’s kill for the Eid al-Adha festival in 2019. Reports indicate that regular sellers and those trading in groups continue to secure 5p/kg to 10p/kg higher.

Agents purchasing for southern plants were also very active last week with 11,096 sheep imported south for direct slaughter. This also corresponds to 2019 levels with numbers imported south at 200,419 head running 15,882 head higher.

The trade over the coming week will be heavily influenced by any carryover of numbers in the market and how markets react after buying for Eid al-Adha.

Higher numbers

To be fair, factories have handled much higher numbers in recent weeks, with the sheep kill in Ireland of 1.56m head running 92,313 head higher while the kill in Northern plants at 215,261 head is 27,014 ahead of 2019 levels.

This should hopefully bode well in reducing pressure on supplies coming on to the market in the coming weeks.

IFA national sheep chair Sean Dennehy said: “Farmers should continue to select lambs as they become fit, keep them moving and bargain hard on price and weight. Factories are paying to 21.5kg with some deals to 22kg in places.”