Livestock Trading in the Scottish Borders

“Welcome to 2024, a year which has begun with yet more wet and windy weather. Without a doubt, ground conditions for all types of farmers across the country have probably created the most challenging start to a year we have seen for many, many years.

Trading for fat sheep has started off well across all centres with both numbers and prices slightly ahead of last year.

Despite the out-wintering challenges for both sheep and farmers, the quality of stock coming to market is good and the well fed, well finished meaty lambs are selling at a premium. The weights coming forward for this sector are currently between 42 and 52 kilos, with the latter selling for in the region of £150 per head.

Scanning is now well underway and feedback from those who have already scanned is that their percentages are slightly ahead of last year’s. As a result of those who have scanned, cast ewes are coming forward in numbers, and like the fat sheep trade, they are also in high demand and selling in a fast and buoyant trade.

Although we are not quite in the midst of the main in-lamb pedigree sheep sales, those sales we did hold in December saw exceptional trades. This bodes well as we head into Spring for the forthcoming in-lambs sales, which will begin in earnest within the next couple of weeks.

At this very early stage, 2024 looks promising and there is still plenty of demand, but as always we are at the mercy of the weather and this does impact on all sectors as we progress through the seasons. So let us hope we have a kind end to the winter and good dry growing weather as we head into Spring.

In our cattle rings, the prime cattle sales have started off well, and similar to sheep there is still considerable demand from all sectors, butchers, processors, and wholesalers. Prices are on par with the end of the year and the cattle coming forward, as always in this part of the country, are of a very high quality with carcasses in line with what the markets are looking for.

There has been buoyancy in the store cattle ring since the first of this year’s sales, most probably on the back of the good prime cattle trade, and despite it still being very early in the season, we are seeing good numbers going under the hammer, with buyers travelling to our markets from all over the UK.

At the moment, there is considerable uncertainty within agriculture, so as we look ahead, I remain optimistic that prices will remain high as we progress through 2024, but with input costs still way ahead of recent years, it is going to be challenging in terms of returns for the farmer.”