Store lambs back £5 a head after dry summer

Soaring numbers of store lambs have pressured prices in recent weeks, pushing the national average down to £69.12 a head, more than £5 back on the year.

Farmers and auctioneers have done their utmost to manage supplies of lambs to avoid a glut and a price crash. Late silage cuts and slow forage crops have delayed buyer interest.

See also: Eyes on early store lambs after festival bonanza

A mild and wet autumn has eased drought-related fears, but some markets are reporting that large buyers, who would typically take 10,000 or more, have been absent.  

Early sales saw throughputs back on the year in July and August, but September numbers were 16% higher, according to Defra’s lowland store sheep figures.

The seven weeks to 22 October saw 669,370 sold, which is 10% more on the year.

Some longer-term lambs will be fed for slaughter in March to meet an expected demand surge in April for Easter Sunday (9 April) and the end of Ramadan (21-22 April).

Grass issues 

Many buyers have been delayed a month by dry conditions, said Ted Ogden of Craven Cattle Marts at Skipton.

Speaking ahead of Wednesday’s sale, he said about 10,000-head were expected, which was a big entry for a November sale.

He said the shorter-term lambs had remained “good to sell”, with the strong premium lambs at £100-£130 a head.

“Medium to long-keep lambs have been more challenging,” said Mr Ogden. “There has been less grazing available, and some folks have been worried about cover crops and turnip crop size. But there are more buyers about now.”

Buyers had been delayed by a month in many cases, he added.

Flesh is lacking

Large numbers of lambs could be carried over into 2023 because of challenges in 2022, when many farmers had been hampered by drought and high creep prices.

This is according to Jack Walton, lamb and cull ewe auctioneer at Hexham and Northern Marts, who stressed the store lamb price has held up remarkably well given the drop in the prime ring.

“On a Friday sale some of the store lambs go to kill in a normal year, but there’s been none of that this year,” said Mr Walton, adding that the opposite had happened – some lambs sold in the prime ring had gone for further finishing.

Some buyers, particularly those in the South, had not bought any store lambs yet, he added.