A limited supply of old-season lamb and cast ewes has been a surge in prices for both in the last week. Prices have increased by 7p to £1.86/kg of liveweight for lamb, and supply is down 2,531 head to 17,950 from last week.

Cast ewes have also rebounded following a drop in price earlier this month and are now back at £58/head.

This comes after they have seen a drop of 1,710 head in the last week.

Positively, New Zealand lamb has continued to command a high price in their domestic market, with the difference between UK and NZ prices standing at 51p for December.

Historically, this can be as wide as 100p, so although contracted volumes of lamb will still come, domestic lamb will be very competitively priced and may deter higher levels of imports.