This week's sheep trade sees lamb and cull ewe prices remain steady at some sites, with other outlets moving to reduce offers again for the week.

Prices have been in decline across the board for the past several weeks, and the move by some outlets to hold their price offers for this week has been seen as a positive development with farmers hoping the price cuts have stalled for the short term at least.

Anecdotal conversations with farmers around the country suggest that lambs are thriving well on grass this year, generally speaking - largely as a result of the more favourable weather conditions.

This week, Kepak is quoting €8.45/kg plus a 15c/kg Quality Assurance (QA) bonus for spring lambs, leaving €8.60/kg on offer here up to 21kg carcass weight. This offer is down 5c/kg since last week.

The Athleague, Co. Roscommon-based processor has no official quote for hoggets this week.

Kepak is quoting €4.70 and €4.80/kg for cull ewes, which is the same price as last Monday.

Irish Country Meats (ICM) is quoting €8.50/kg plus a 20c/kg QA bonus for spring lambs, leaving €8.70/kg on offer here up to 21kg carcass weight. This price is at the same level as last week.

The Navan, Co. Meath and Camolin, Co. Wexford-based outlets are quoting €7.00/kg plus a 20c/kg QA bonus for hoggets, leaving €7.20/kg on offer here to 23kg carcass weight. This offer is at the same level as last week also.

ICM is quoting €4.50/kg for cull ewes, which is the same price as last week.

Ballon Meats in Co. Carlow is quoting €8.50/kg for spring lambs and €5.10/kg for cull ewes.

Kildare Chilling is quoting €8.60/kg plus a 10c/kg QA bonus for QA spring lambs, leaving €8.70/kg on offer here. The processor is quoting €7.10/kg for QA hoggets, and €5.00/kg for QA cull ewes. Cull rams are being quoted at €3.50/kg to 43kg carcass weight.

Just over 39,500 sheep were slaughtered in the week ending June 15. This figure is down 38%, or almost 24,000 head, on the same week of last year.

The cumulative spring lamb kill-to-date this year is 144,000 head – down 7% or 11,400 head on the same time last year.

Carnew Mart in Co. Wicklow hosted its weekly sheep sale on Thursday, June 19, with 1,350 sheep on offer.

The trade was described as "very strong", with sheep over 45kg selling for €174-€186/head and some heavy sheep selling to tops of €212/head.

The factory-weight lambs in the sale weighing from 40-44kg sold generally from €155-€178/head. Store lambs from 35-39kg sold from €140-€153/head with lighter stores weighing from 30-35kg selling from €115-€135/head.

Heavy cull ewes in the sale weighing over 80kg were selling from €205-€265/head, with the lighter cull ewes meeting a very strong trade also. Ewes from 62-79kg were selling from €150-€250/head.

There was a small number of ewe hoggets on offer in the sale, and they sold for €160-€212/head. A small number of ewes and lambs were on offer, selling from €254-€315/outfit.