The lamb trade is off to a flying start in 2020 as farmers are averaging over £90/lamb in the prime ring.

With a typical price of £2.07/kg for medium-weight lambs, farmers are taking home £6/head more than last year and almost £20/head more over 2017 prices.

Some Scottish abattoirs this week are quoted to be paying £4.45/kg, which puts a 21kg carcase over £93.

Price rise

Across Britain, the deadweight old season lamb price is quoted as 450.3p/kg, according to AHDB, which is 17.1p higher than the same week last year and 43p above the five-year average.

Strong demand from China is driving prices in Australia and New Zealand, who will struggle to send bumper volumes of lamb to the UK for Easter.

Supply is tight in the sheepmeat market as more lambs were finished earlier last year, which has reduced carryover into 2020.

The annual production of sheepmeat in 2019 was 307,500t, which is up 6% on 2018.

Sheep kill up

The UK killed 13.15m sheep in 2019, which is over 330,000 more than 2018.

The average carcase weight in 2019 was 19.9kg, 600g heavier year on year.