EARLIER in the season the number of lambs reaching the market was much higher than last year.
However more recently the volume of lambs in the market has fallen below year-earlier levels, but the number of heavier lambs in the market has increased, acting as a brake on the trade.
"In this respect the recent fall in prices cannot be laid solely at the door of a high volume of lambs and other market elements must be at play," said Stuart Ashworth, head of economic services at Quality Meat Scotland.
The current auction market price of around 155p/kg live weight is the lowest at this time of year for more than four years, and around nine per cent lower than this week last year.
Recent consumer market information shows a decline in lamb consumption, indicating consumers are switching away from lamb.
"Lamb is not a popular dish when the weather is hot and some build-up of roasting joints will have occurred as, for example, demand for leg roasts has come under pressure while demand for lamb chops has remained good," said Mr Ashworth.
"Two other potential drags on lamb prices are changes in sheepskin prices and the sterling/Euro exchange rate. Sheepskin prices have come under pressure in recent months standing some 25-30 per cent lower than this time last year as demand from China eased," Mr Ashworth added.
Also exerting some pressure on the price is an exchange rate which sees sterling some seven per cent stronger against the Euro compared to this time last year. This means that in Euro terms UK lamb prices are two to four per cent down on the year.
Further complicating the export trade is the relative movement in domestic lamb prices in our major trading partner and competitor countries. The equivalent of a typical UK lamb is trading six per cent down on the year in France, four per cent down in Germany, three per cent down in Spain and two per cent down in Ireland.
Market round-up
The Cumberland and Dumfriesshire Farmers Mart sold 3649 prime lambs in Longtown on Thursday to a top of £90 per head and 200p per kg to average 155p (-14p on the week).
Another large show of 6253 cast sheep saw heavy ewes sell to £126 for Texels and average £71.36 (-£6.09), while light ewes peaked at £75 for Cheviots and levelled at £42.71 (-35p). Rams sold to £280 for a Texel and averaged £95.17 (-£4.71).
The firm went on to sell 1744 store lambs in Dumfries yesterday. An excellent show of 1000 Blackface lambs sold to £50.50 and averaged £41.88, Texels to £53 and ave. £47.20, Suffolks to £52 and ave. £48.60, and Mules to £50 and ave. £45.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article