Reporting deadweight prices for sheep carcases
Published 2 October 2025
Applies to England
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This publication is available at https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/sheep-carcase-classification/reporting-deadweight-prices-for-sheep-carcases
The Sheep Carcase (Classification and Price Reporting) (England) Regulations 2025 were signed into law on 9 July 2025. The Sheep Carcass (Classification and Price Reporting) (Wales) Regulations 2025 are due to be signed into law later in 2025.
This guidance applies to approved slaughterhouses in England which either:
- slaughter at least 2,000 sheep per week as a rolling annual average
- slaughter between 1,000 and 1,999 sheep per week as a rolling annual average, and volunteer for the regulations to apply to them
Find out more about the sheep carcase classification requirements.
Slaughterhouses must report deadweight prices weekly to the Agriculture and Horticulture Development Board (AHDB) and any supplementary payments to the Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs (Defra).
These requirements apply to sheep aged less than 12 months at the time of slaughter.
Which animals to report on
You must include the details of all individual sheep that were:
- purchased on a deadweight basis
- aged less than 12 months at the time of slaughter
- slaughtered during the previous week, from Monday to Sunday, inclusive
Do not report:
- prices for animals purchased from liveweight markets
- prices for animals killed in your slaughterhouse for a third party on a contract-kill basis
- flat rate prices
How to report on deadweight pricing
For each animal you must report the:
- date of slaughter
- dressing specification used
- new season lamb or old season lamb category
- cold weight
- conformation class, including subdivisions, if applicable
- fat cover class, including subdivisions, if applicable
- market price
- kill number
Each of these details is represented by numbers or letters as described below. These number and letter codes should be combined to form a long string for each animal.
Read the How to classify sheep carcases guidance for more information on the classification requirements.
Date of slaughter
The date the sheep was slaughtered should be reported in the format YYYYMMDD.
Dressing specification
Use the code ‘0’ or ‘1’ that indicates which specification was used as shown in the table below.
| Specification | Code |
|---|---|
| UK standard specification | 0 |
| Reference specification | 1 |
Category
Use the sheep carcase classification categories ‘NS’ or ‘OS’ as shown in the table below.
| Category | Code |
|---|---|
| New Season Lamb | NS |
| Old Season Lamb | OS |
Cold Weight
Report the cold weight of the carcase in kilograms to one decimal place.
Conformation class
Use the conformation classes ‘S’, ‘E’, ‘U’, ‘R’, ‘O’, ‘P’ for each category of carcase as shown in the table below. You should also include subclasses, if applicable.
| Conformation class | Subclasses |
|---|---|
| S – Superior | Low (-), Medium (=), High (+) |
| E – Excellent | Low (-), Medium (=), High (+) |
| U – Very good | Low (-), Medium (=), High (+) |
| R – Good | Low (-), Medium (=), High (+) |
| O – Fair | Low (-), Medium (=), High (+) |
| P – Poor | Low (-), Medium (=), High (+) |
Fat cover class
Use the fat classes ‘1’, ‘2’, ‘3L’, ‘3H’, ‘4L’, ‘4H’, ‘5’ for each carcase as shown in the table below. Include optional subclasses, if applicable.
| Fat cover | Subclass |
|---|---|
| 1 - Low | Low (-), Medium (=) or High (+) |
| 2 - Slight | Low (-), Medium (=) or High (+) |
| 3 - Average | Low (-), Medium (=), High (+) or Low (L), High (H) |
| 4 - High | Low (-), Medium (=), High (+) or Low (L), High (H) |
| 5 - Very high | Low (-), Medium (=), High (+) |
Price
Use the price that you paid the supplier for each animal on delivery to the slaughterhouse:
- in pence per kilogram
- excluding VAT
- before deductions for incidental costs incurred by the slaughterhouse
Incidental costs may include:
- procurement
- transport
- insurance
- processing and slaughter
- carcase classification charges
- meat inspection
- lorry wash
- AHDB levy
- any other ‘below the line’ charges
A ‘below the line’ charge is a small and insignificant cost compared to the value of the carcase.
Kill number
Use the 8-digit kill number assigned to the sheep. This can include leading zeros before the value of the kill number if it’s less than 8 digits long. For example, if the kill number is ‘1234’, you would report ‘00001234’.
How to report the information
You must email the above information to AHDB at dead.weight@ahdb.org.uk by 11.59pm on Monday each week.
You must also notify AHDB if there is no price data to be reported in any one week.
Read the AHDB Guidance for slaughterhouses in England on reporting deadweight sheep prices for more information on how to report the information to them.
You must provide this information to the Rural Payments Agency (RPA) if they ask for it.
Supplementary payment information
If you make an additional payment for an individual sheep before you send your report to AHDB, you should include it in your report to AHDB.
You must report to Defra any additional payments that you make after you send the original report to AHDB. Email Defra at prices@defra.gov.uk to get a template to record the supplementary payment information on.
You need to provide the total:
- number of carcases
- amount of supplementary payment made
- cold weight in kilograms
You must email this information to prices@defra.gov.uk within 7 days of the end of the financial quarter the payment was made in. You should not submit this data to AHDB.
You must also notify Defra if there are no supplementary payments to be reported in any one week.
Example 1
You slaughter a sheep on Monday 11 May 2026 then make a supplementary payment for it on Sunday 17 May 2026. You need to add the supplementary payment to the information string for that animal before you send the report to AHDB on Monday 18 May 2026.
Example 2
You slaughter a sheep on Monday 11 May 2026 then make a supplementary payment for it on Monday 18 May 2026. You need to report this supplementary payment to Defra by Tuesday 7 July 2026.