Processors play catch up after lambs leap £16 at marts

Processors have been forced to bid up to £6/kg for hoggs this week after a surge of £15-£17 a head in liveweight trade in the run-up to Easter.

A sharper deadweight trade, which has lifted 80-90p/kg in a month, has been pulled upwards by competition for numbers within the live auction markets.

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Confidence was buoyed last month by reports of supermarket procurement teams sourcing hoggs at the marts – often a sign of supply tightening.

Auctioneers say the increase, while welcome, may be “too little, too late” to provide relief for many patient store lamb finishers.

The liveweight prices, which have lifted 40p/kg in four weeks, include Thirsk’s 297p/kg SQQ last week (30 March), which was up 12.4p/kg on the year as 4,072 lambs averaged 282p/kg.

Supply gap

Limited consumer demand for lamb due to the cost-of-living crisis remains a concern, although auctioneers say there could be a supply gap between hoggs drying up and spring lambs coming forward.

A wet March slowed growth rates and there is a trend for fewer early lambing flocks to operate.

Tom Wrench, auctioneer at Rugby Farmers Mart, said decent hoggs had made the equivalent of 620-640p/kg deadweight on Monday (3 April).

He said he was doubtful there would much more of a lift, as processor margins would be feeling the pinch.

“I think the trade rests on how many hoggs are further north,” said Mr Wrench. “This area, between Coventry and London, was hit really hard by the drought last year.

“Hogg numbers are running short in this area.”

A late surge in trade will not have changed a poor year for store finishers, who bought stores for £80-£85 and sold at £95-£115 in the new year, said sheep auctioneer Will Probert of RG&RB Williams at Ross-on-Wye.

“With the costs, I don’t think there’s been any margin in the hoggs at all for most,” he said. “It’s all come too late.”