Sheep
Business and Policy July 2025 – Sheep
India Trade Agreement An agreement was made at the start of May for a UK–India trade deal. This is likely to come into force at the start of 2026 but there is finer detail yet to be defined for this deal. How it currently stands, sheep meat from the UK will reduce from the current…
Business and Policy June 2025 – Sheep
UK EU Strategic Partnership On the 19th of May, an agreement on a new strategic partnership was reached on the between the UK and the EU. The agreement will simplify the red tape associated with trading agrifood between the UK and EU. While the finer details are yet to be understood; this should see an…
Blowfly Risk and How to Reduce It
The blowfly season is lengthening, with an earlier emergence of flies, largely due to the changing climate. For this reason, producers should be very cautious of fly strike occurring earlier than normal. This article outlines how to reduce flystrike through reducing breeding sites, and how to prevent it. For fly eggs to be laid, a…
Business and Policy May 2025 – Sheep
Trade and festivals The prime lamb trade has slightly decreased over the last month to a SQQ of 702.9p/kg, which is 157.6p/kg back on the same week last year (w/e 19/04/25). Last year Ramadan and Easter landed in the same period, allowing for tailored supermarket promotions, this year Easter was three weeks after Ramadan, resulting…
Agribusiness News April 2025 – Sheep
Ramadan Progresses Ramadan ended on the 30th March, with Eid al-Fitr being celebrated the following day to mark the end of the fast. For this celebration, Muslim families tend to visit friends and family to celebrate the end of fasting and invest in large quantities of meat a few days before this. Typically, we see…
Red Clover as a home-grown protein in sustainable sheep systems
Increasing the amount of forage-based protein that can be grown on farm is a key way to address the UK’s protein deficit and reduce reliance on imported protein sources. Forage legumes such as white and red clover are important species in providing sustainability in the sheep sector. This guide will focus on the use of…
Agribusiness News March 2025 – Sheep
Ramadan Ramping Up Trade Ramadan is set to commence on Friday 28th February (depending on the sighting of the moon), this month-long fasting festival is set to end on the 30th March, and then Eid-al-Adha on the 31st to celebrate the end of Ramadan. The timing of this festival is very significant for the sheep…
Agribusiness News February 2025 – Sheep
Shoppers Trends Current lamb trade is at a premium, driven by a good level of demand coupled with global shortages. Looking at our domestic consumer, sales of lamb have shown a 6% rise in volume for 2024 compared to the previous year. Out of home lamb sales have also increased on the year by 8%….
Agribusiness News January 2025 – Sheep
2024 – What a year! 2024 has seen some extreme trading conditions for sheep meat. With a huge drive coming in the late spring from the hogget market with a top SQQ for the year with the week ending 18/05 of £9.27/kg DW. We have again seen the strong demand that key religious festivals drive,…
Keeping and Maintaining Ewe Condition
Managing a ewe’s body condition score (BCS) is an essential tool to ensure performance and productivity of the ewe. This allows to assess the level of fat along the ewes spinous and transverse processes to allow for an understanding of the nutritional status of the ewe. There are industry targets for condition scoring, shown in…