It’s all quiet on the sheep quotes front

THE sheep trade continues to be “tight” with question marks arising over whether the supply will keep in balance with demand.

At the moment the factories are able to absorb what numbers are available but with the Muslim festival of Eid due to begin at the start of September more supplies will be necessary.

Whatever about the future, the factories were careful yesterday morning not to create any ripples as the majority left their official quotes exactly as they had been for last week.

However, Kildare Chilling dropped their quote by 5c/kg for lamb back to €5.00/kg plus 10c/kg bonus.

Quotes for cull ewes saw an easing at both Kildare and Kepak with Kildare falling back from last week’s price of €2.70+10c/kg to €2.60+10QA, while Kepak eased by 5c/kg onto €2.65/kg +5c/kg bonus from last week’s €2.70+5QA.

The two ICM plants hold their ground however as they continued to quote €2.70/kg yesterday.

Among the farm organisations the feeling is that with the approach of the Eid festival demand for sheep should increase as the week goes on.

The IFA’s John Lynskey said lamb supplies are tight at the factories this week and predicted that demand “will be very strong later this week and into next week.”

Both the mart trade and live export buying are active, as Mr Lynskey reported live buyers are offering €2.30 to €2.35/kg.

Mr Lynskey also said he had received a lot of complaints and concerns over Northern lambs at the meat plants in recent week.

The Livestock and Meat Commission of Northern Ireland confirmed that 5,627 lambs had been exported across the border to the Republic for direct slaughter for the week ending the 13th of this month.

However, the commission noted that a tightening in supplies and increased competition from the Republic due to a stronger euro has “helped steady the trade.”

Both Mr Lynskey and John Brooks of the ICSA are critical of some factories failure to raise weight limits on lamb to 22kgs.

This is an understandable grievance as who doesn’t want to get paid for as much of what you produce as possible?

On the other side of the fence the factories point to farmers drawing sheep that don’t reach the upper weight limits.

A source from Kildare Chilling said: “We’re killing a lot of lambs at 20kg and we have had some back at 15kg which makes no sense for the farmer or us”.

In regard to those very light lambs the Kildare man speculated that some newer entrants into the business were perhaps still learning the ropes.