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December lamb prices continue to follow seasonal trends
Friday, 6 January 2023
Liveweight
GB NSL SQQ lamb prices for December (w/e 10 Dec – 31 Dec) averaged 244.4p/kg, 0.7% (1.7p) up on the previous month. Prices ranged by 13p during the month, lowest at the start of the period, then rising to 251.3p/kg in the w/e 24 Dec. Prices have eased on the highs seen last year, when the same week topped 285.5p/kg, however they remain 33p (15.6%) above the 5-year average for December.
Throughputs of NSL averaged 112,300 head per week during the month, only slightly back (0.6%) on November. This is despite a quieter week at market in the week between Christmas and New Year. Throughputs for the w/e 31 December dropped 31.0% on the previous 3 weeks average, with 84,000 head sent to market. This was back almost 2,300 back on the same week the previous year. However overall throughputs for the month were up 6,400 head (1.4%) on the year.
Cull ewe prices followed the same trend as lamb prices, increasing to the w/e 24 December when they reached £88.10 before easing into the new year. Prices averaged £82.30 for the month up £5.10 (6.7%) on November, however £10 (10.8%) less than the previous year.
Deadweight
Average deadweight prices for NSL peaked at the start of the month at 552.2p/kg and softened to 539.9p/kg in the w/e 24 December. Prices for the month average 543.4p/kg, up 2.3p (0.4%) on November, and remain almost 16% above the 5 year average for December.
Weekly average slaughter numbers were estimated at 239,800 head for December, up 1.4% (3,300 head) on last December. When compared with the previous month, slaughter numbers are back almost 6,000 head (2.4%). For the year in total, estimated slaughter numbers reached 11.56 million head, up 1.9% (220,300 head) on 2021.
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