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Sheep meat production falls in September on the back of low slaughter
Friday, 21 October 2022
As of 1 November DEFRA has revised the September lamb kill and production figures upwards, the updated data will be published with the October data release.
According to the latest Defra figures, UK sheep meat production in September totalled 21,400 tonnes, 11% lower than year earlier volumes. Carcase weights saw little change on average, meaning the decline in production was driven by the reduced kill over the month. The additional bank holiday for the Queen’s funeral will have interrupted usual kill patterns for the month, while kill capacity was reported to have been reduced temporarily.
Clean sheep slaughter stood at 961,700 head in September, a decline of 59,700 head from August and 99,400 lower than in September last year. Adult sheep kill was also down in September, falling 8% in the month to 102,000 head, a decline of 9,100 head.
Despite the significant dip in slaughter numbers in September, production for the year to date (Jan-Sep) has seen a year-on-year increase of 4%. Carcase weights have remained steady at 19.7kg/head, only 100g lighter than for the same time last year and sitting 300g heavier than the 5-year average. Given the relative stability in carcase weights, the increase is mostly due to the increase in clean sheep and adult sheep slaughter, which were up 3% and 5% respectively.
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