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Lamb production drops further during February as supply remains tight
Thursday, 11 March 2021
By Charlie Reeve
February lamb kill totalled 766,000 head, down 8% on last year’s levels, according to Defra. Lamb kill was also down slightly on the previous month with 87,000 head fewer lambs coming forward.
The tight supply of finished lambs is reflected in the current high prices we are seeing for both deadweight and liveweight lambs. The deadweight OSL SQQ is still in excess of £6/kg.
Throughputs do tend to fall during first few months of the year, with the monthly lamb kill picking up with the new season crop in the autumn. However, throughputs this February are well below the five-year-average, 126,000 head lower for the month.
January trade data will become available in the coming days, This should help indicate how much the UK’s withdrawal from the EU at the start of the year impacted the export trade of lambs to Europe, and also availability of New Zealand product.
Defra’s survey response rate remained low again during February at 89% in England and Wales due to complications of Covid-19. This may impact on some of the classifications such as the split between clean sheep and ewes.
Average carcase weights during February increased for the second month running to average 20.3kg/head, up 0.3kg on the previous month and 0.2kg on February 2020.
Total sheep meat production totalled 18,000 tonnes during February, down 1,800 tonnes on February 2020 and 1,300 tonnes lower than the previous month. This is the lowest monthly production figure reported since May 2013.
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