Sheep farmers are in the money, with new season lambs commanding some of the highest prices ever seen at some centres due to the shortage of numbers coming forward following the late spring and lack of grass.

At St Boswells, on Monday, spring lambs averaged 220.3p per kg, up 4.6p per kg on the week, selling to a top of £106 per head from Longyester and at Carlisle, the same day the average was 206.8p, having peaked at £114.50 from Blackrigg. Averages were well up at Caledonian Marts, Stirling on Tuesday too, with the 84 prime lambs cashing in at 235.68p, up 20.92p, having peaked at 260p from Meikle Seggie.

Most centres have in fact been averaging well in excess of 200p per live kg for the last three or four weeks, and while averages are beginning to fall back now as numbers increase, prices are still 15-20p per liveweight kg higher than this time last year.

According to the Agriculture and Horticultural Development Board’s latest UK market survey, new season lamb producers have struggled with a shortage of adequate quality grazing following one of the coldest and wettest starts of the season for years. Consequently, since the beginning of April, total throughputs at GB auction markets are more than 40% lower than in the corresponding period last year as just over 80,000 head.

Not surprisingly, supply constraints have seen prices consistently above year earlier levels, with the SQQ reaching a peak of 233.4p per kg for the week ending May 8, 2010 – a massive 17p per kg higher than in the corresponding week last year. Meanwhile, the combined SQQ deadweight lamb price increased by almost 14p per kg on the week to 446p, for the week ending May 15.

However, the new season lamb SQQ lost 16p, to level at 212p for the week ending May 19, due to the increased numbers coming forward. The fall in price was less marked for old season lambs with the average falling 3p on the week to level at 182p per kg while the price of cull ewes weaked marginally week on week to average £67 per head.

UK clean sheep slaughterings during the first four months of the year are also well down on the last 12 months due to the smaller breeding flock and the hard spring, which resulted in throughput figures falling 16% to balance at 3.4m head.