Despite increased slaughterings of of prime sheep and cattle in the first six months of 2023, production is being restricted due to reduced carcase weights.

According to the latest Defra figures, March recorded the highest monthly throughput of lambs this year at 1.2m head due to the increased carry over of old season lambs from the previous year.

Glesni Phillips, of Meat Promotion Wales (HCC)’s intelligence executive, said new season lambs were slower to come forward initially, and demand surrounding Easter and Ramadan encouraged higher numbers with June recording well over 1.0m head.

He added that more than 5.9m lambs have been processed so far this year – up 4% or 251,400 head on 2022 levels, and 6% ahead of the longer term five-year average.

Prime cattle throughputs are also up by 1% at 1m head for the January to June period, with average carcase weights lighter on the year by 4.3kg at 344.8kg.

Average sheep carcase weights for the year to date stand at 20.1kg – 0.5kg lighter than year-earlier levels.

Cast sheep throughputs are also higher on the year for the first six months of 2023, with ewe and ram numbers up 4% to 823,000 head with average carcase weights down 1.9kg on the same period to 26.4kg.

Total throughput of sheep and lambs for the January to June 2023 period reached 6.8m head which is 6% ahead of the five-year average for the corresponding period.

However, due to the lighter carcase weights for both categories of sheep, the total volume of sheep meat produced in this period is only 1% higher than year-earlier levels at 141,400 tonnes.

In contrast, the UK pig market recorded 11% or 619,300 fewer slaughterings at 5.1m head compared to the same period of 2022, due to tight supplies and the drop in production.