Lamb prices have fallen by another 20-30c/kg, with the cut imposed at the start of this week.

This leaves base prices at €8/kg with factories operating at an opening offer of €8.15/kg to €8.30/kg for quality assured (QA) lambs.

The two Irish Country Meats plants and Dawn Kildare are quoting a similar base price of €8/kg plus 20c/kg QA, while Ballon Meats is offering the highest price of €8.30/kg all-in.

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Groups and regular sellers are receiving €8.30/kg. There were significant numbers moving earlier in the week at a price of €8.35/kg to €8.40/kg, but this is being confined to groups with a higher payment or bonus mechanism and select sellers handling very large numbers.

Factory procurement agents continue to adopt a coy approach when quoting, and in general are only quoting a couple of days in advance. Plants are on average processing for three to four days, and with numbers coming on stream at a higher level in recent weeks this is creating some delays in places in getting lambs booked in for slaughter.

Throughput is significantly lower than the five-year trend, but is running ahead of 2025 levels. Last week’s kill was recorded at 43,264 head, about 500 head higher than the previous week despite the bank holiday Monday. Throughput is running over 8,000 head higher than the equivalent week in 2025, but several thousand head lower than the five-year average.

The kill included 35,545 lambs and a higher number of 7,456 ewes and rams. Remarkably there is still a low number of hoggets in the kill at 263 head.

Ewe trade

The general price range in most plants for ewes remains at €5/kg to €5.20/kg – with plants and abattoirs most active in the ewe trade paying to €5.50/kg. Plants are keenest for heavier ewes and some are willing to do deals on carcase weight to secure sales. Kildare Chilling has upped its carcase weight limit to 45kg while reports indicate up to 50kg carcase weight is being paid in other plants.

Northern Ireland

Base quotes in Northern Ireland are unchanged with factories competing with buyers purchasing sheep for exporting live.

Base quotes are averaging in the region of £6.70/kg to £6.80/kg (€7.85/kg to €7.96/kg) with some plants paying regular sellers up to £7/kg (€8.20/kg) to ward of interest from competing buyers.

The number of sheep exported last week to Britain for direct slaughter increased by shy of 500 head to 3,019 sheep with a similar number reported to be exported under the breeding and production certificate.

Numbers exported to Britain to the end of July stood at over 78,000 for direct slaughter and over 90,000 under breeding and production, while there was a total of 2,589 head exported to Ireland for direct slaughter.