The sheep trade is static, with factory quotes unchanged. The two Irish Country Meats plants and Dawn Kildare continue to work of an opening base quote of €7.90/kg plus their 20c/kg quality assurance (QA) payment.

This leaves the majority of producer groups trading in the region of €8.20/kg, with a couple of groups securing €8.30/kg.

The latter is also evident in groups receiving a payment of upwards of 10c/kg for U grading lambs.

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Producers with lower negotiating power and trading in the above plants are in many cases also negotiating €8.15/kg to €8.20/kg for QA lambs.

Regular sellers are also having some success in securing €8.25/kg to €8.30/kg, but this is typically reserved for sellers handling significant numbers and with a good producer-processor relationship.

There are select deals being completed to 23kg carcase weight but this is rare and confined to farmers trading at the top end of the market.

Such prices are also being paid in plants or abattoirs for top-quality lambs, with Ballon Meats quoting €8.20/kg all-in and O’Flynn Meats quoting €8.30/kg all-in.

Supplies are balanced with demand and agents are exhibiting a lukewarm appetite for higher numbers.

Last week’s throughput was recorded at 40,535 head, a difference of just 10 head on the previous week.

This is broken down into 34,010 lambs and 6,357 ewes and rams.

The live trade is also unchanged, with a significant differential opening up between lambs of a similar weight but significant variance in flesh cover.

Ewe trade

The ewe trade is steady, with a significant differential remaining between factories with less activity in the ewe trade and those specialising in ewe sales.

The latter plants are quoting a price of €5/kg, while plants with lower activity are quoting €4.30/kg to €4.50/kg.

Prices in the latter plants range from €4.40/kg to €4.70/kg, depending on negotiating power.

Producers should note that light carcase ewes with a poor cover of flesh are facing significant price penalties of €1/kg to €1.50/kg-plus.

Northern Ireland

Factories in Northern Ireland continue to try to purchase lambs at a base price of £6.85/kg to £6.90/kg (€7.97/kg to €8.03/kg) following last week’s drop in base quotes of 10p/kg to 15p/kg.

Reports indicate that regular sellers and those alternating between slaughtering lambs in Northern Ireland and exporting live are still negotiating prices of upwards of £7/kg.

The number of sheep exported for direct slaughter to plants in Ireland last week reduced by shy of 600 head to 3,052.

Meanwhile, the number exported to Britain for direct slaughter fell by over 1,200 head to just 812 head in the last week.