Weekly cattle & sheep market wrap – 16 January 2025

• GB deadweight all prime cattle price increased by 5.8p to 560p/kg for the week ending 11 January, with notable rises in R4L steers (+4.6p) and heifers (+8.1p).
• GB deadweight old season SQQ for lamb reached 724p/kg, up 16p from the previous week and 118p higher year-on-year, alongside a 5% annual decline in slaughter numbers.
• Despite a decline in roasting joint consumption, overall, there were positive Christmas beef and lamb retail sales.

GB deadweight cattle prices continue to show strong growth, with the overall all prime price increasing by 5.8p to 560p/kg for the week ending 11 January. This was driven particularly by R4L steers and R4L heifers with increases of 4.6p and 8.1p respectively. The overall young bull prices also continued to rise reaching 543p/kg, up 3.8p on the previous week and 71p year-on-year.

Estimated GB prime cattle slaughter sat at 33,000 head for the week ending 11 January. This was higher on the week, following the expected new year dip, but flat on the same week last year.

The overall deadweight cow measure also followed suit with a further increase reaching 391p/kg, a 3.4p increase. Although estimated cow throughput for Q4 of 2024 tracked relatively similarly with previous years, w/e January 13 was down significantly year-on-year at 9,400 compared with 10,800 last year. This will be an area to watch moving forward.

Strong demand in the run up to Christmas was realised in retail as total primary beef volumes grew by 1.8% in the 4 weeks ending 29 December. This was driven by strong performances from mince (+5.0%), steak (+3.2%) and diced beef (+6.1%).

Meanwhile, deadweight sheep prices continue to rise, with the GB deadweight old season SQQ at 724p/kg for the week ending 11 January, an increase of 16p on the previous week and 118p above the same week last year.

Estimated clean sheep slaughter for the week ending 11 January saw a 5% decline year-on-year sitting at 210,000 head, an 11,000 head fall.

Despite lower levels of lamb on promotion over the Christmas period, roasting joints showed strong performance in retail with 6 million kilograms sold in the w/e 29 December. Again looking at lamb retail performance, although consumer lamb purchase volumes declined for the first time in 2024 for the w/e 29 December, spend increased by 3.3% largely down to 5.4% increase in prices paid by shoppers.

Globally, lamb prices continue to remain strong supported by the lower slaughter across major exporting nations and European demand is steady despite the recent high prices. These factors both lend support to the UK lamb market.

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