May 8, 2021, 6:00 am
Agriland made the trip out west this week to Roscommon Mart, to check in and see what the trade was like at the mart’s weekly sheep sale on Wednesday (May 5).
On the day, numbers were back on the previous few weeks, with the poor weather – according to the mart’s manager Maura Quigley – a contributing factor to the fewer spring lambs on offer.
Despite this, spring lambs made up the bulk of the sale, followed by cull ewes, 10 lots of ewes with lambs, and a handful of hoggets were also on offer.
Prices were well maintained on last week for spring lambs and the few hoggets on offer, while cull ewes saw a lift in prices.
April 28, 2021, 6:00 am
With cull cow factory prices rising week-on-week, it is leaving the dry cow trade at marts in an even better position than what it was a fortnight ago.
The R-grade cow is now attracting quotes of up to €3.80/kg, while the O-grades are hitting the €3.60/kg in some factories – therefore the beef cows with flesh to match these grades, are currently meeting a strong demand at marts.
In terms of the prices, quality cull cows from the suckler herd were easily achieving prices of €1.75/kg up to €2.10/kg and higher on many occasions.
The general consensus from speaking with farmers looking at cattle selling in marts over the past few weeks is that the ‘plainer’ store heifers or bullocks are receiving some strong prices due to ‘grass cattle’ demand – which in a way is a positive for the farmer selling these stores.
This January 2019-born Charolais heifer weighed 705kg and sold for €1,540 (€2.05/kg).
Friday last saw Roscommon Mart host its weekly sale of bullocks and cows, while also hosting a special sale of heifers, where over 300 went under the hammer.
The cows and bullocks got under way in ring two and were met with huge demand.
This June 2019-born Limousin bullock weighed 485kg and sold for €1,080 (€2.22/kg).
Cows saw an improved trade last week throughout the country, with huge demand for cows from factory agents, feeders and Northern Ireland customers. Trade was especially brisk for quality.
The top call of the sale went to a Charolais cow weighing 905kg that sold for €1,940 last Friday.
March 16, 2021 6:10 am
The wet weather failed to put much of a dampener on the trade for cattle last week, as prices reported were more or less unaffected from the previous week.
There were fears that the heavy rainfall would make some farmers postpone their buying of store cattle until the weather cleared up.
Speaking with one mart manager in particular about custom last week, they had noticed some buyers taking a step back – yet prices weren’t hit too badly.
In the store trade, some marts were seeing similar week-on-week prices paid – with the 500-600kg quality continental bullock continuing to range from €2.22/kg up to highs of €2.45/kg.
March 9, 2021 6:30 am
Last week saw marts report record prices at sales for finished hoggets, with top prices reaching as high as €170-175/head.
Some marts, which maybe didn’t see as blistering a trade as some marts – which saw prices go above €165/head – still saw a very strong trade for those heavy hoggets with top prices of €160-164/head.
However, in general, many of those 50kg plus hoggets were moving at prices of €155-165/head, with top prices at some sales reaching €166-175/head in places.
There was quite a bit of variation in prices being paid out for 47-49kg hoggets at marts last week. Prices generally ranged from €137/head up to near €160/head in cases. However, in the main, good-quality types generally sold upwards of €145/head.