The lamb trade in marts is largely unchanged over the last week.

A number of mart managers are reporting increased appetite from butchers and wholesalers for lambs for the Christmas trade.

However, with factory agents largely subdued in their purchasing power, there has not been any real change in price with the exception of butchers and wholesalers competing with each other.

ADVERTISEMENT

Sales that have a strong presence of such buyers are reporting prices for quality, fleshed lambs weighing upwards of 52kg to 54kg selling from €177 to €185, with select lots hitting €190.

There has also been a few higher prices paid in special fatstock entries.

This is in contrast with sales where factory agents are the main buyers, with prices here ranging in the main from €172 to €180.

Likewise, lambs weighing 48kg to 50kg are selling at the top end of the market from €175 to €182, but in other sales, prices are topping out from €167 to €175.

There is keen demand for lighter fleshed lambs, with the same price differential evident and ranging from the mid- to high-€160s back to the mid-€150s.

Stores

Demand for stores has been tempered in some areas by the persistent heavy rainfall which has hit demand for very light lambs most.

Shorter-keep stores are trading anywhere from €3.40/kg to €3.80/kg, with occasional lots of ewe lambs hitting €4/kg and higher.

In contrast, light lambs are trading on average from €3/kg to €3.40/kg, with some stunted or very long-keep prospects falling below the €3/kg mark.

The ewe trade is static. A price range of €180 to €200 is buying a high percentage of ewes weighing from 80kg to 90kg.

There are select lots rising to upwards of €200, but numbers are small.

Plainer-quality types are selling back to €150 per head, with ewes with a poor cover of flesh selling anywhere from €1.60/kg to €1.80/kg. Ewes lacking considerable flesh cover are selling back to €1.20/kg to €1.50/kg.