A FALL in the price of lamb in recent weeks has made life difficult for farmers across the district.

A combination of the warm weather and continued uncertainty over Brexit has seen prices fall away from the highs of spring and hit the pockets of farmers.

Haltwhistle farmer Willie Weatherson said: "There's been a massive drop in lamb prices. It's like a depression across the industry, it's been a drop of about half since March and April.

"It's absolutely crippling the industry, it's been a disastrous winter and it's been absolutely horrendous the way it's gone.

"If you're selling 50 lambs, you're losing £1,000. Everybody is the same, you can't do anything about it.

"The only animals selling are the quality lambs, but they're still down proportionally.

"The supermarkets are pulling it down, they always think of an excuse to get it down. Last week you had people going home before the sales, because the prices were so bad."

The warm weather has seen a fall in demand for lamb, while ongoing negotiations over Brexit mean that the export market is continuing to suffer.

The lack of rain has also seen leaner lambs come to market than usual, with the lack of heavy lambs affecting the price.

But Hexham and Northern Marts Auctioneer Chris Armstrong has downplayed the fall in prices, adding that they have been generally good throughout the summer.

"The price of lamb has been good throughout the summer," said Chris. "I wouldn't say it has halved since April, that's just not the case.

"It's come easier in the last two weeks, coming from the fact that nobody wants to eat lamb in this heat.

"You get a few barbecues but nobody wants to sit down and have a lamb casserole or a lamb shank.

"The dry weather we've seen has meant that the lambs don't have as much flesh on them, they're coming to us much leaner than normal.

"Uncertainty over Brexit with the negotiations going on has also limited the exports into Europe."

Prices at mart on Tuesday (17) were 10p a kilo dearer than last week, with the best lambs selling at more than 200p a kilo.

Chris added: "We're seeing an increased number of lambs without enough flesh on them.

"We would advise farmers to be very ruthless when selecting their fat lambs."