Upward movement in lamb prices has stalled, at least temporarily, with factory agents more bullish in quotes offered for lambs.

While there was an appetite to quote above last week’s prices, agents are sticking more rigidly this week to price quotes.

Base quotes remain unchanged, with the two Irish Country Meats (ICM) plants and Dawn Meats quoting a base price of €7.90/kg plus the plants’ 20c/kg quality assurance payment (QA).

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This leaves opening prices on offer to farmers with poor negotiating power at €8.10/kg.

Groups and farmers handling higher numbers or possessing more bargaining power are being paid in the region of €8.20/kg.

Some group deals based on a higher payment top-up or bonus payments on U grading lambs are rising to €8.30/kg.

Agents are more reluctant to match this price for non-group sheep and are trying to operate in the region of €8.25/kg, but there are still some deals being completed at upwards of €8.30/kg.

Wholesale buyers remain keen for quality lambs, with Ballon Meats continuing to quote €8.20/kg all-in and O’Flynn Meats €8.30/kg.

Some agents are also conveying a message of higher numbers coming on stream and are using this to temper expectations.

This has not been reflected thus far in the weekly kill figures, with last week’s throughput falling by another 1,481 head to 40,852.

The kill figure has fallen 616 head below the corresponding week’s kill in 2025. This would have been a greater fall were the ewe and ram kill figure not running over 2,000 head higher at 7,164.

Ewe quotes are unchanged, with a significant range remaining. The majority of plants are working from a lower quote in the region of €4.30/kg to €4.50/kg, but there are still some deals being completed in such plants at €4.60/kg to €4.70/kg for significant numbers of heavier and high-quality ewe carcases.

Plants more active in the ewe trade continue to quote a price of €5/kg, with more life reported in many live sales.

Northern trade

The recent upward momentum in base quotes in plants in Northern Ireland has also stalled, with plants remaining on a base price quote of £7/kg for Thursday (€8.15/kg).

Sellers handling big numbers continue to extract 10p/kg to 15p/kg higher from the market, with demand firm from agents purchasing sheep for export to Ireland and Britain.

The number of sheep exported to Ireland for direct slaughter last week jumped by 1,818 head to 5,115 sheep.

There was also a significant increase in the number of sheep exported to Britain for direct slaughter with figures increasing from 1,162 to 1,848.

There were no updated slaughter figures published at the time of going to print.

Prices in Britain are steady in the region of £7.30/kg or €8.50/kg.

A full analysis of European prices and a global snapshot is detailed on this week’s sheep feature on page 40.