Last week’s sheep kill (week ending April 23) witnessed a decrease on the week prior, figures from the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) reveal.

In account of one-day less of processing processing due to the Easter Bank Holiday, throughput fell below 50,000 head.

Looking at last week’s figures in detail, 49,724 sheep were processed – a decrease of 8,576 head from the week before.

The number of hoggets slaughtered last week came to 38,657 head, which is a decrease of 10,016 head from the week prior.

Ewe and ram throughput however, witnessed an increase of 761 from the previous week, totalling 4,956 head.

Furthermore, 6,110 spring lambs were processed last week, an increase of 1,266 head on the previous week.

Week-on-week sheep kill (week ending April 23):

Taking a look at this year’s throughput figures to date, 837,765 sheep have been processed so far.

Of that figure, 741,559 have been hoggets, 16,014 were spring lambs, with the rest made up of ewes and rams (80,151) and a small portion of light lambs (41 head).

If we compare figures to date this year, against the same period in 2021, we can see that the total number of sheep slaughtered is up over 113,614 head; 119,036 more hoggets and 3,934 less ewes and rams have been slaughtered.

Spring lamb throughput is also down on this week last year by 1,435 head.

Year-on-year sheep kill changes (week ending April 23):