View from the rostrum: Healthy appetite for lamb

Stephen Dodsworth on trade at marts.

26 November 2021 • 3 min read

Stephen Dodsworth on trade at marts.

With outputs raging higher than we have ever known I am not sure whether our farming fraternity should be thankful, grateful or relieved at the remarkable returns they are seeing on their beef and lamb production.

This year has certainly seen unprecedented prices, week in, week out. The beef boom, I feel, was in many ways to be expected, what with suckler herds depleting and sexed semen influencing the dairy sector; both things clearly add to the demand for beef outstripping supply, but what of the stratospheric rise of lamb?

When Brexit loomed, the noise came from many corners that our sheep market would suffer the most; how wrong those noises were.

The growing prices globally are clearly a healthy trend, the rest of the world is also enjoying this fast trade, but, in my opinion, the insatiable appetite for lamb on home shores has proved to be the feather in the cap for UK shepherds.

Export levels are down, as are imports, numbers of sheep on the ground in the UK are reportedly high, yet this wonderful trade somehow stays strong. While I'm not a number cruncher, it strikes me that the obvious answers come from a nation that quite simply must be eating more lamb? But why?

Firstly the lockdowns seemed to galvanise the public into cooking at home. People learned to feed themselves properly and straddled the barriers they had always faced in the kitchen, therefore eating better.
Unable to go out for the weekly £30 takeaway, the nation took to DIY. Housebound and with cookbook in hand, the rogan josh, lamb kofta and even the good old shepherd's pie were duly prepared.
With the family trip to the carvery off the table, Sunday dinners at home came back with a bang, just in time to save a generation close to replacing memories of grandma's epic roast lamb with those of the more modern ‘uncle Toby'.
Parents are more aware than ever before of what goes in to their offspring, clear evidence of this we see as the health vitamin market is growing at incredible speed As the fear of Covid-19 became more real what then was better than an immune-boosting, iron, zinc and vitamin B12 rich lamb dish?

To conclude, lamb trade is doing now as we would normally expect February to April, this will bring numbers and keep the production lines moving along nicely.

The supermarkets will no doubt scour the globe for cheaper options however if the cheap fixes were out there I feel I wouldn't be writing this having just witnessed a £121 sale average in mid November.

Marts will continue to serve their customers and sell lambs weekly, the fantastic independent wholesalers who support us every week will continue to supply the butchers who tirelessly feed the nation.

This process has gone on for at least 1,000 years in Darlington, may it continue for 1,000 more.