Sunday is the Easter holiday; traditionally it is a high point for lamb consumption and production increases leading into the holiday. But the last two weeks (i.e., the first two weeks of April) lamb slaughter was down about 12 percent from 2021 – when Easter fell on 4 April, two weeks earlier than this year. In other words, lamb slaughter was higher after Easter 2021 than it is pre-Easter 2022. Moreover, total production so far this year is down about 13.6 percent, or 5 million pounds though last Friday. However, despite declining production, consumption is rising. This is a trend; in 2021 lamb and beef were the only two proteins to see a per capita increase – and for lamb it was the second year in a row (albeit from a very sm...

TAGS – Livestock, North America