Beef and sheep farms make hay while sun shines

In late June the pound fell to its lowest level in 31 years, bad news for consumers and the high street with holidays abroad and imported good more expensive. For farmers though it's been a completely different story.

With livestock markets in Brecon, Kington, Knighton, Ludlow and Worcester, we have a really good handle on prices, trend and fluctuations in demand and there has been a notable shift since June 24.

The price for lamb is perhaps the most significant, with an animal now a much more competitive commodity on the export market, prices jumped 20p per kilo in just one day and haven't slipped back.

Great news for lamb farmers with prices roughly 40p per kilo ahead of where they were 12 months ago.

The season for selling breeding ewes has just started and here we are also seeing much better prices than those recorded in 2015, with figures having risen £10-£15 per head.

And the story continues with Store Lambs too. Many more have been bought to market earlier with animals trading a £10 per head more than this time last year.

It's the other side of the same coin for beef farmers too. The fall of the pound against world currencies is making imports more expensive and therefore stimulating demand within the UK.

With that beef farmers have also enjoyed an increase in the price of their animals of between 15-20p per kilo from earlier this year.

Undoubtedly the short-term devaluation of the pound has had an instant and welcome positive effect for sheep and beef farmers. It's been no bad thing for the communities that depend on the trade from market day either. In some of the smaller market towns, market day can often be the busiest day of the week for the local shops.

Long may it continue but even if it doesn't, sheep and beef farmers, to borrow another farming adage, have certainly made hay while the sun shone this summer.

* Michael Thomas is a Partner and Livestock Auctioneer based at McCartneys in Ludlow