You’d be forgiven for thinking it was a special forward store sale in the dry cow ring at Ennis Mart on Thursday last, as there were some eye-watering prices paid.

There were 170 cows on offer, with the sale-topper a 990kg 2017-born Charolais cow that sold for €3,000 (€3.03/kg) - and she wasn’t alone in making over €3/kg.

About half a dozen cows broke that threshold, with a 620kg Belgian Blue-cross cow making €3.37/kg.

Buyers competed hard, especially for heavier cows. Limousin cows over 800kg sold for an average of €2.83/kg.

High prices

High prices weren’t the sole preserve of suckler cows either, with an average price of €1.87/kg for Friesian cows weighing between 600kg and 700kg.

From store through to factory-fit fleshed cows, sucklers generally sold in a range from €2.20/kg to €2.90/kg, with a few Friesians hitting into that price range too.

An easing in cattle supply, combined with a number of big sporting events in Europe, is helping to create this demand and mart manager Martin McNamara said trade has really picked up in the last fortnight across all classes of forward cattle.

“Trade is very strong all round. Cows are the same price as a good bullock. Forward bullocks and heifers have improved too and the export of weanling bulls is driving the trade.

“Farmers can’t compete at all with exporters for those and any bull at 340kg to 350kg is being cashed in this year.

“Demand for manufacturing meat means a lot of cows are going to factory buyers, but there’s a share of store cows being bought for grass too.

Good backend

“Cows kept factories strong all spring, but now overall numbers are tightening, so hopefully it will be a good backend.”

Good prices and pressure on stocking rates are helping to make farmers minds’ up when it comes to selling stock too, he added.

“What you’d really see this year is no one is carrying any surplus.

“Dairy farmers especially are being more critical if a cow is a problem and they won’t carry any passenger.”