Farmgate lamb prices under pressure from old-season livestock

A new report by Hybu Cig Cymru (HCC) has provided little cheer for lamb producers; dry weather in 2022 led to lambs taking longer to finish, it says, and this will have repercussions for prices this year because a larger number of old-season lambs are expected to come to the market this year.

The UK mostly processes about 77% of the lamb crop by the end of the year the lambs were born in but by December 2022 that stood at about two-thirds.

It means that around 4.3m lambs are expected to come forward between January 2023 and April 2023.

HCC analyst Glesni Phillips said that when compared to the 2021-22 lamb crop, this is a 13% increase – or 513,500 head – in the number of lambs left to be slaughtered, and an additional 25% when compared to the 2020-21 lamb crop.

“This would suggest there is a higher carryover of old-season lambs into 2023, which will likely apply pressure to farmgate prices,’’ she said.

Consumer demand may also be weaker. Data from market analysts Kantar show that volumes of lamb in the retail market fell by 17.9% year-on-year in 2022.