Weekly cattle & sheep market wrap – 28 November 2024

Key points

Prices and throughputs for week ending 23 November

• Strength in prime cattle prices across all regions, despite a rise in numbers forward.
• Deadweight lamb prices rose further as numbers remained constrained.
• Latest retail figures point to firm retail demand for lamb and stable beef volumes. Market reports suggest strong festive demand is adding support to prices currently.

Cattle

Deadweight prime cattle prices moved upwards again in the week ending 23 November, with jumps seen across all categories overall. R4L specification steers and heifers gained 6p on the week to average 542p/kg and 540p/kg, respectively. The overall young bull price rose by 4p to average 514p/kg. Meanwhile, the overall average cow price rose by 5p to 358p/kg, up 66p on the year.

Price gains were seen across all reporting regions and cattle categories, with northern prices showing the steepest increases for prime cattle, and southern for cows.

Estimated prime cattle slaughter rose by just over 1,000 head (+3%) to 33,400 head for the week. Meanwhile, cow numbers fell back to an estimated 11,400 head (-800 head; -6%).

Latest retail figures (12 weeks ending 3 November) show beef volume sales have been stable year-on-year of late. Market reports suggest strong festive demand is adding support to prices currently.

Sheep

Deadweight lamb prices also moved upwards again in the week ending 23 November. The GB new season SQQ averaged 661p/kg, up nearly 13p from the week previous. This placed the measure 73p above where it was during the same week a year ago.

Weekly estimated clean sheep slaughter continued to fluctuate, falling 5% (12,000 head) to 212,200 head for the week ending 23 November. Poor weather across parts of the country may have contributed to numbers forward. This put slaughter down an estimated 20% against the same week a year ago. Market reports suggest that well-fleshed lambs remain a premium.

On the demand side, the latest retail sales data from Kantar shows strong performance for lamb of late, particularly leg roasting joints (12 weeks ending 3 November).