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All articles about Taking Stock

Market trends and prices analysis from the major commercial and pedigree sheep and cattle livestock rings, including Kelso tup sales, Stirling bull sales and the Thame Sheep fair. Keep abreast of the trade in cull ewes, barren cows, dairy cows, prime beef and lamb and store lamb and cattle.

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TAKING STOCK

Farmer Focus: Wetter winters mean housing more sheep

It feels like not an awful lot has changed since my previous article. The monotonous tasks of winter feeding and bedding seems to consume most of the daily routine here,…

TAKING STOCK

60 years of livestock markets and how they’ve changed

Taking Stock looks over the seismic changes in the livestock sector through the lens of the UK’s livestock marts over the past 60 years. Over the past 60 years, there…

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Insights

MEAT MARKETS AND PRICES

Analysis: How livestock auctions fit in today's meat markets

There is a certain nostalgia associated with trading livestock at a live mart – it is, after all, a system that has operated well for more than 200 years. But…

TAKING STOCK

Beef and lamb markets: Will record-breaking prices continue?

Farming has become much more expensive in the past 12 months, but will record-breaking prices continue to cover across-the-board inflation? Rising input costs resulted from a hike in fuel prices,…

TAKING STOCK

Head-to-head: Which is best? Selling liveweight or deadweight

Wondering whether stock could have been sold for a better price elsewhere inevitably follows market day or the sight of the wagon leaving through the farm gate. Each farm has…

TAKING STOCK

Store prices set fair with lamb kill back 16%

Store lamb averages remained defiantly strong through mid-October, buoyed by finishers securing large numbers of horned lambs and a resurgence in prime lamb values. An average store lamb was £76.53…

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News

TAKING STOCK

Beef supply key as factories target 420p/kg deadweight

Cattle supplies may be too tight to allow base price cuts to reach the 420p/kg-mark processors have targeted later this summer, Farmers Weekly has learned. Plans to gouge 25p/kg off…

TAKING STOCK

Eyes on early store lambs after festival bonanza

Close scrutiny of early store lambs sales could indicate whether predictions about a supply glut will come true, as trade moves into post-festival holiday mode. Lamb trade has been buoyed…

TAKING STOCK

No price lift certainty with 100,000 pig drop

The return of Covid-related staff shortages in processing plants could contain pig prices later this summer, despite a predicted monthly shortfall of 100,000 pigs by September. The fact that short…

TAKING STOCK

Buyers respond to underfinished lambs with two-tier trade

A 40% jump in concentrate costs has turned the supply of lamb on its head, with markets reporting premiums for well-finished lambs and leaner sorts being discounted. Only two months…

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Video

LIVESTOCK

Video: Stirling bull sales brings more records

Over 8,000 visitors flocked to Stirling to see this year’s Stirling bull sales where records were set and elite genetics once again found new commercial and pedigree homes. Several new…

DAIRY

Video: All the action at UK Dairy Day

The UK Dairy Day was busier than ever this year. The event, held at Telford International Centre on Wednesday 13 September, attracted 8,422 visitors. And with 310 trade stands, 83 cattle…

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