Marketplace for new season lambs

While some hill farmers are still in the process of lambing, new season lambs from England and the south of Scotland have begun emerging on to the marketplace.

Old season lambs still make up the majority of prime sheep on the market, but new season lambs edged into auction markets sales – accounting for 1% in Scotland and 14% in England and Wales – over the past week.

“While new season lamb volumes are lower than this time last year, total auction throughputs of prime sheep are continuing to run higher than last year,” said Quality Meat Scotland’s head of economics services, Stuart Ashworth.

Across the UK as a whole around two-thirds of the 2016 lamb crop had been slaughtered by the end of March, a two-percentage point reduction on the same period last year, he said.

“Despite a larger 2016 lamb crop the actual number of prime sheep slaughtered between June and the end volume marketed in early April in the run up to Easter, post-Easter auction sales have still had higher volumes of old season lambs than last year up to the most recent sales, with around 40% of these animals being heavier than 45kg lwt.

“Seasonal demand at Easter helped to drive producer prices higher in early April, but since then they have lacked direction and are currently failing to match last year’s levels,” said Mr Ashworth.

“In contrast, the first of the new season lambs are realising slightly higher prices than a year ago on lower volume.

“In euro terms, though, the UK prime sheep average price is some 8% lower than last year, in contrast with major producers like France and Ireland where the euro price to producers is fractionally up (less than 1%) on the year.”

Scottish lamb will therefore, he said, remain competitive on the European market.

Picture: Dougie Nicolson. New season lambs have edged into auction market sales.