The highlight of Thursday evening’s sheep sale at Ballinasloe Mart in Co Galway was the sale of five very large cull ewes. Weighing an average of 120kg, the Suffolk-cross ewes with some Bluefaced Leicester breeding in their background sold for €132.Average-sized ewes with a good cover of flesh sold from €90 to €100, with large-framed ewes selling to €113. Lighter ewes that had lost lambs or were lacking flesh sold from €70 to €85. The trade for hoggets was subdued, with a significant percentage of the sale made up of tail-end hoggets. Good-quality hoggets, weighing 50kg to 53kg, sold from €108 to €112, with a top price of €116 paid for good-quality 54kg Suffolk ewe hoggets.
The highlight of Thursday evening’s sheep sale at Ballinasloe Mart in Co Galway was the sale of five very large cull ewes. Weighing an average of 120kg, the Suffolk-cross ewes with some Bluefaced Leicester breeding in their background sold for €132.
Average-sized ewes with a good cover of flesh sold from €90 to €100, with large-framed ewes selling to €113. Lighter ewes that had lost lambs or were lacking flesh sold from €70 to €85. The trade for hoggets was subdued, with a significant percentage of the sale made up of tail-end hoggets. Good-quality hoggets, weighing 50kg to 53kg, sold from €108 to €112, with a top price of €116 paid for good-quality 54kg Suffolk ewe hoggets.
Hoggets weighing from 47kg to 50kg sold from €97 for a pen of ram lambs lacking flesh to €106, while forward store hoggets weighing 42kg to 44kg sold from €90 for plainer quality lots to €98. Demand for light hoggets was sluggish.
There was good interest in ewes with lambs at foot, with prices influenced by quality. Single lamb lots sold from €100 to €130 for aged ewes with light lambs to a top of €160 for the good-quality young ewes. Twin lamb lots sold from €190 to €203 for good-quality ewes and lambs, reducing to €170 for lesser-quality lots with aged ewes.
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