- Location
- East Sussex
A piece from the Farmers Weekly below.
"The 2018 UK lamb crop is estimated to be about a million head lower than in 2017, because of the harsh spring weather.
June 2018 census figures published by the Scottish government point to 8% fewer lambs on farms at 1 June than in the previous year – the lowest lamb crop since 2013.
Defra’s provisional UK-wide census figures put the overall drop in the lamb crop at 2%, which equates to a fall of 400,000 head."
However this may be a conservative estimate of the reduction as there have been !.76 million less sheep ear tags ordered so far this year!
If one extrapolates that forward then there could be up to 2 million less lambs.
Before you all get excited and rush out and buy loads of cheap store lambs, it is highly likely that slaughter numbers may not be down as much this year due to ewe lambs being killed, the shortage of feed and of course Brexit.
The Supermarkets are full of New Zealand lamb at the moment which must have cost them significantly more than British lamb is at the moment!
"The 2018 UK lamb crop is estimated to be about a million head lower than in 2017, because of the harsh spring weather.
June 2018 census figures published by the Scottish government point to 8% fewer lambs on farms at 1 June than in the previous year – the lowest lamb crop since 2013.
Defra’s provisional UK-wide census figures put the overall drop in the lamb crop at 2%, which equates to a fall of 400,000 head."
However this may be a conservative estimate of the reduction as there have been !.76 million less sheep ear tags ordered so far this year!
If one extrapolates that forward then there could be up to 2 million less lambs.
Before you all get excited and rush out and buy loads of cheap store lambs, it is highly likely that slaughter numbers may not be down as much this year due to ewe lambs being killed, the shortage of feed and of course Brexit.
The Supermarkets are full of New Zealand lamb at the moment which must have cost them significantly more than British lamb is at the moment!