Spring lamb prices

I’ve nice fleshy hoggets of around 50kg plus to sell. How much should I look for in the yard. All ch tx lowland type. Thanks

Ennis to day 54kgs... 175 euro

I got €160 in the yard. Bought for €91 last October. Only 1 bag each of meal. Happy enough

Brought a few to cahir mart today..ewe lambs bought last August. 90/100euro .1 batch texels 48kg 159

Other.few were speckled face I'd say suffolk x belclare. 56kg 170

Would have made breeding hoggets I think but grass going to be tight I think so culled a few..hopefully I kept the best of them..Happy with today's money anyway

Hogget prices were a bit higher this time last year, around 7.50 - but prices are creeping up now, so maybe we’ll hit this price this year…

https://www.ifa.ie/markets-and-prices/sheep-price-update-15th-march/

Passed by our local private factory today and it was loading two fridge artics for export...... do we block their gates as well.

Either you want free trade or you don't.

There was no secret, but one would wonder what a paid farm rep union would put his/her time in at to not be able to join a few dots. There were no livestock exported live from UK mainland to Europe last year and we had a buoyant year because of a real functioning free market. I sent Brian Rushe that link a long time ago but I think Hw was too concerned about Kevin Cooney keeping all his SFP.

What do they put their time in at? No market analyst in? Busy selling phone deals and discounted Willy warmers?

You have just highlighted the problem but I think it has come to an end.

The ifa was a great organisation and served your generation of farmers very well and your generation have refused to give up the power to allow it to serve the next generation. (well done to ye).

I believe you and your team in the past IFA were the cream of framers at the time and yeer off spring have yeer intelligence and got the hell outa farming so ye haven't young modern starter farmers interests at heart.

Stand back and think about it the only defender of ifa is a self proclaimed retired farmer.

I very much respect your knowledge of sheep and grassland but I think you are looking at the ifa of past and holding on to secure your leased sfp going forward.

The government are after waking up and discovered that the ifa no longer represents the majority of farmers but they are handy to play nodding for media occasionally.

The farmers that are complaining won't bother to do any work for other farmers, they won't come together in any organisation. Those in IFA are democratically elected by their members, right or wrong they do a job and if you're not a member it's not your business is it. Thinking you are going to change the factories is stupidity, waste of time, pathetic. Constant criticism of IFA for not making them change is childish and belligerant too. It's amazing that your type aren't blockading Shaws tractor for charging tooo much for secondhand tractor because thats the world you live in, you think the world owes you a living and blame all around you when it doesnt deliver.

You don't know what financial problems are. I'd always do what I could for farmers, but I wouldn't waste my time on dead losses. You're a joke if you think you're going to change beff processors work.

If you're a full time farmer and missed the entitlements bus, i dont think you made a great career choice,

When I started farming I wasn't expecting my fathers five years nursing home bills and 20% interest on my loans and had no way of knowing it was coming

we have the ability to source a machine from any part of the uk and Europe. I was a teenager in the reference years and the place was still carrying legacy debt, so I wasn’t on the bus with the ifa big landholders who had the heads up of what was coming and what to do the get a big piece of it.

We have been left with two options to sell sheep. The nearest factory or the nearest mart where the same factory operates a cartel to ensure you get not no more than option 1. This and then the aforementioned market control measures have it a poor career choice now and for the future agreed. No representation and there never will be.

so as sheep farmers I say accept that as I have, keep your ifa membership, and make sure they and the Icmsa don’t help themselves to a piece of your sales cheques to squander.

ICM used to call their lamb ''Celtic lamb'' in Europe so they could source lamb really any where in the British Isles for that label. Don't know how that's working now since Brexit.

Whatever loophole they have is probably the same reason we're still getting beef into our best market

If they were stopped from importing they'd just process it in their british factories, Brexit is a joke now anyway, our beef or cattle shouldn't be allowed in Great Britain no more than their lambs here, but that's the way it is. Beef/lamb processors are in a business, they'll use every means to source and sell their product . Our local family abbatoir is proof that if farmers got their finger out it can be done. Irish wouldn't work in a killing line no more than they'd put the work into selling their own beef/lamb. Farmers started factories before and what a joke that was, and like you they'd blamed everyone except themselves.

You're only being laughed at by the factories, they'll close down as long as you want

Okay set up your own factory and then larry won't take your offal. There was a man from Midlands in England used come around the west and buy continental stock and bring them to a factory in England. Paid great money at the time, this went on for 3 years and no sign of him on the 4th year. Few local men rang him to see when he was comming and he stated that the factory he was buying for was told not to be comming over buying up stock and if they did the could be problems with their offal disposal and licencing.

Green party in power and all this talk of biomethane on the rise big time. The green party should really be advising farmers to set up co-op style factories and to get around the offal disposal it should be used as a feedsource for the bio methane plants.

I am an Energy engineer and as part of my final year we investigated offal as an anerobic digestion feedstock. Due to the volatile fatty acids the offal was actually on average nearly 30 - 40% more gas yield than MSW waste, grass, grains or animal manure. Nobody ever wants to talk about this as it doesn't suit the green party's agenda of reducing herd size and fine gael and finna fail don't want it because there in bed with larry.

Like I cannot see how this idea of a co-op style factory that xan produce beef and lamb sustainably which creating an alternative bio methane energy that can be directed into the grid or used to power gas turbines and generate electricity.

The bureaucracy and lobbying in this country has it destroyed. We are now ran by big multinationals.

The labelling is a non issue as it’s all similar quality lamb and being exported anyway. It the price control element that’s the problem. The uk farm unions are asleep at the wheel as well in that they are working again themselves selling lambs here to be slaughtered by our crooks.

Yes they do not just because they can, because we let them.

When you look back at the tithe wars and the land wars we grew very weak.