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UK lamb kill rises
Thursday, 14 April 2022
The key theme so far this year within the lamb industry has been higher availability of lambs. This was expected due to changes in kill patterns over the past few years, impacted by Brexit. With that now complete, it was forecast for lamb kill to return to a more usual pattern, and for the size of the carry-over to increase. With that increased carry-over, lamb prices were expected to be slightly below year earlier levels, and this is something which has been seen in the market. However, the strong global market has continued to underpin the British market, keeping British lamb prices supported.
UK lamb kill during March totalled just over 1 million head, a rise of 11% (99,000 head) on year earlier levels, according to Defra data. In part this rise will have been driven by fact that last year there were fewer lambs available due to Brexit.
Meanwhile ewe kill has increased for the month of March by 12% (12,000 head) compared to levels a year ago, to 116,000 head. The timing of Ramadan is likely to have partially driven this trend.
Production of sheep meat reached 24,700 tonnes during March, up 12% (3,000 tonnes) year on year.
Quarter one summary
Total lamb kill for Q1 comes to 2.8 million head, an increase of 7% (183,000 head) year on year. Meanwhile, ewe kill totals 306,000 head, a rise of 14% (37,000 head) compared to Q1 2021 levels.
For the quarter production totals 66,800 tonnes of meat, 10% (6,000 tonnes) higher than a year ago.
For some time now, there have been concerns over the accuracy of Defra sheep slaughterings data. This is due to differently recorded trends recorded between Defra slaughterings and other data sources and industry comments.
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