Cattle and sheep farmers have seen some lift in prices over the past couple of months but pig producers have seen farm-gate prices fall by around 10ppk deadweight (dwt) over the past 12 weeks.
Looking at the current market from a pig-sector perspective there has been an increase in slaughter volumes, according to Stuart Ashworth, Quality Meat Scotland’s head of economics services.
Mirroring the situation in the other sectors, an increase in carcase weights has been pushing the volume of meat available higher still.
“So during September pigmeat production in the UK was over 5% higher than a year ago, while the number of pigs killed only increased by 3.5%,” he said.
Adding to this increased domestic volume is an increased pigmeat availability in mainland Europe as a consequence of Russia excluding European pigmeat from its market.
This scenario contrasts sharply with the sheep sector where, relative to earlier in the summer, volume on the market has diminished.
Between June and the end of August, UK lamb slaughterings were 5.8% higher than last year.
However, in September slaughterings were only 1% higher, and auction sales last month would suggest the number of lambs sold has fallen below year-earlier levels more recently.
“With the number of ewes slaughtered also lower than last year despite increased lamb carcase weights sheepmeat production has reduced compared with year earlier levels and market prices have strengthened, rebounding to levels seen in early August,” Mr Ashworth added.
Unlike the pig sector, European sheepmeat availability remains similar to the levels of the previous year, and Russian decisions on meat exports have minimal direct impact on the global sheepmeat market.
Of particular importance, Mr Ashworth said, was the extent to which there are a higher number of lambs on UK farms to be marketed before April 2015, compared with this year.
Provisional census results suggest an extra 660,000 lambs were born in the UK in 2014 and by the end of September only an extra 190,000 had been slaughtered, compared with the previous year.
Meanwhile, cattle producers have benefited from a slow and steady increase in market prices through the autumn. This has seen an 8% increase in deadweight price since early August, as supplies have tightened.
During September the total slaughter was less than 1% higher than the previous year, and it is estimated cattle supplies tightened further last month.
With the UK census showing a 1.5% decline in slaughter cattle between 12 and 24 months old in June, it seems likely this tighter supply scenario will persist for a while.