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Sheep meat production increases with higher throughputs
Wednesday, 22 March 2023
Overall production of sheep meat in the UK reached 22,000 tonnes in February according to the latest Defra statistics. Meanwhile January’s production figure was revised up by 100 tonnes to 21,500 tonnes, resulting in February’s production figure to be up 560 tonnes (3%) on the month. Year-on-year production has seen an increase of 1,200t (6%) from February 2022.
Increased throughputs in February have driven the increase seen in production. Throughputs for the month sat at 969,700 head for clean sheep. This is an uptick of 26,000 head from January (Defra has increased the January 2023 slaughter number by 2,400 head), and a 105,000 head (12%) increase from levels seen in February 2022.
This bucks the seasonal trends seen in the previous five years whereby throughputs have fallen from January to February by an average of 126,000 head. The higher throughputs for February are likely due to higher carryover.
Carcase weight changes had little bearing on production figures for February, with clean sheep sitting in line with January at 20kg/head. Carcase weights have eased 0.9kg/head year-on-year, and sit only 0.3kg/head under the 5-year average.
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