Factories are working hard to try and keep a lid on price but have increased base quotes by 10c/kg to try and continue to encourage farmers to trade direct rather than market lambs live.

The two Irish Country Meats plants in Camolin and Navan and Dawn Meats in Kildare, have increased their quote by 10c/kg to a base of €7.90/kg, plus their 20c/kg quality assurance payment.

This leaves groups trading on the basis of a 30c/kg price top-up being paid €8.20/kg for R grading lambs with some groups being paid 10c/kg higher for U grading lambs. Regular sellers are typically negotiating returns of €8.20/kg to €8.30/kg.

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Factories are trying to draw the line at this level but some sellers handling significant numbers are securing 5c/kg to 10c/kg higher.

There is also plenty of life in the wholesale / butcher and live trade.

Ballon Meats has increased its all-in quote by 20c/kg to €8.20/kg.

Quality fleshed lambs

Meanwhile O’Flynn Meats in Co Waterford has joined the quotes table this week and is quoting a price of €8.30/kg to a carcase weight of 23kg. It stresses that such a price is only payable for quality fleshed lambs.

It is quoting a similar price to Ballon Meats of €5/kg for top-quality ewes. This remains significantly ahead of plants with lower interest in ewes which remain at a price range from €4.30/kg to €4.50/kg.

Kill figures

The sheep kill remains on a downward trend with last week’s throughput reducing by about 1,000 head to 42,333 head. This includes 34,287 lambs which is on a par to the corresponding week in 2025 and 7,825 ewes and rams which is 1,691 head above the corresponding week in 2025.

The kill for the year to date is running 20,588 head higher but this is being driven by ewe and ram throughput running 75,773 head higher.

Northern Ireland

Base quotes in Northern Ireland have also increased by 10p/kg to reach £7/kg (€8.15/kg) for Thursday. Reports indicate there is greater competition in the market with agents purchasing sheep for live export to both Ireland and Britain increasing purchasing activity. As such prices of £7.10/kg to £7.20/kg (€8.38/kg) have been paid to fend off interest with deals also completed to a carcase weight of 22.5kg.

This has helped to maintain throughput which was recorded last week at 9,500, about 150 head lower than the previous week.

While the number of sheep exported to Ireland for direct slaughter reduced last week by 838 head to 3,297.

There was a marginal increase of 200 head to 1,162 in the number of sheep exported live to Britain for direct slaughter.

Opening prices on offer in Britain have also firmed by 10p/kg with the live trade running ahead of the factory trade quotes of £7.30/kg.