Sheep price update: week starting in steady manner

The sheep trade is starting the week in a steady manner with base quotes unchanged on last week’s levels.

The general quotes for hoggets are a base of €9.30/kg, plus the respective quality assurance payments of 15c/kg to 20c/kg.

Opening offers are typically in the region of €9.50/kg with groups and regular sellers being paid €9.60/kg to €9.70/kg.

There are some deals still being negotiated at €9.80/kg for very large numbers but agents are reluctant to negotiate deals too far in advance.

Weight limits

Pressure remains on carcase weight limits, with most plants trying to curtail payment terms to 23kg.

Agents are holding tight on this weight limit in deals involving producers with lower negotiating power – with some regular sellers still managing to get paid to 23.5kg.

The lamb trade is steady with opening prices on offer in the region of €10/kg for QA lambs.

There are some deals being completed at €10.10/kg to €10.20/kg, but numbers moving above this level are relatively small.

This goes for the lamb kill as a whole – with hoggets dominating throughput and lambs making up less than 5% of throughput.

Industry forecasts point to a high reliance remaining on hoggets in the coming weeks with lamb numbers in the system thought to be low.

Ewe trade

The ewe trade is also unchanged. Prices range from €5.30/kg to €5.50/kg in the main processing plants with some abattoirs active in the ewe trade paying to €5.60/kg to €5.80/kg at the top end of the market.

Demand has been variable in recent days with reports from some sales pointing to a keener demand for ewes weighing from 75kg to 85kg rather than ewes weighing up to 100kg liveweight.