Boost for farmers as hogget prices jump again
IVAN Moffitt of Manorhamilton mart rates sheep as “the only job at the moment”. The statement is backed up by the fact that, despite poor weather, for the second week in a row sheep farmers are walking on sunshine as factory quotes for hogget jumped another 20-25c/ kg over the weekend.
The biggest mover is Kepak Athleague as they push their quotes for hogget up by 25c/ kg to €6.30/kg. It has to be noted, however, that Kepak drop any reference to additional payments for quality, which up until this week had been set at 5c/kg for hogget.
Kildare Chilling, who despite only moving their price up by 20c/kg hold on to the top spot on our price table with their quote of €6.30+10c/kg bonus. Also moving up, like a thoroughbred at Cheltenham, are Dawn Ballyhaunis as they improve their official position for hogget by 20c/kg to €6.25+5c/kg bonus.
Scrambling around at the bottom of the table are the two ICM plants and Moyvalley Meats with all three improving by 10c/kg to €6.10/kg for hogget, with the two ICMs throwing in an additional 10c/kg by way of a quality payment.
The factory quotes for spring lamb, however, show only limited improvement from last week. The top payer continues to be Kildare Chilling on an unchanged quote of €7.00+10c/ kg bonus while both Dawn and Kepak added 10c/kg to their price yesterday morning, thus bringing them in line with both Kildare and Moyvalley’s bid of €7.00/kg for new season lamb.
The story with the cull ewes is not bad unlike that of this year’s new lamb with a general air of steady as she goes. Kepak Athleague continue their dominance of the top position when it comes to cull ewe prices, however their straight €3.30/ kg remains unchanged from last week.
Dawn added 20c/kg to their quote for culls yesterday bringing them up to €3.20/kg while Kildare stuck 10c/kg on to their quotes thus keeping themselves in line with Dawn although Kildare’s 10c/kg bonus does edge the northwest men out of second place on the price table. ICM, a very major player in the Irish sheep processing business, leaves its quote unchanged at €3.00/kg, which also leaves them bottom of that same price table.
On the ground both IFA and ICSA are reporting that hogget is making €6.50/kg at the sheep factory door, while IFA’s Sean Dennehy was prepared to push spring lamb prices out to between €7.35 and €7.40/kg on quality.