Sheep price update: lamb trade remains under pressure

The lamb trade remains under pressure, with agents remaining coy in their purchasing behaviour and reluctant to quote beyond Tuesday’s kill.

The two Irish Country Meats (ICM) plants in Camolin and Navan held their base quote steady for Monday and Tuesday at €7.70/kg plus their 20c/kg quality assurance (QA) payment.

Official quotes from competing plants are hard to come by, but reports point to the trade holding steady to reducing by 5c/kg to 10c/kg in some plants. This leaves opening prices on offer for QA lambs in the region of €7.80/kg.

Variability also remains in paid carcase weight limits. The two ICM plants are paying to 22kg across the board.

Other plants are paying to 22kg to varying degrees – regular sellers and groups are having success in securing the higher weight limit, but sellers with lower negotiating power have to dig in hard to have any hope of climbing above 21.5kg carcase weight.

Slaughter performance

Reports on slaughter performance are changeable. Some procurement agents report a higher number of carcases deemed overweight and overfat in the kill profile.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, there is also some agents pointing to a lower kill-out in lambs lacking flesh cover.

A number of agents have cautioned farmers that such lambs are killing as low as 42% when the average should be closer to 44%.

Ewe trade

The ewe trade is unchanged. Prices at the lower end of the market are opening at €4.50/kg.

A number of plants are quoting in the region of €4.70/kg, while Kildare Chilling are around the €5/kg mark for good ewes and Ballon Meats are 20c/kg higher. Throughput of ewes and rams remains 30% to 40% below the norm for the time of year.