Macroom Mart was a hive of activity for the last of its special weanling show and sales of the autumn on Saturday last.

Of the 525 weanlings on offer, 350 were bulls, with heifers making up the balance and demand was solid throughout.

A lively sale, there were some exceptional prices paid.

Across the sexes, most continentals made over €3/kg, with lighter ones pushing for €4/kg and a small number of well-muscled calves selling for close to €5/kg.

Under half of what was on offer had traditional breed genetics and most of these made between €2.50/kg and €3/kg, with the bulk of these making €2.50/kg to €2.70/kg. Even at the lower end of quality, nothing sold for less than €2/kg.

There was a special section for organic stock and prices for them mirrored the main weanling sale.

Big numbers

Speaking after the sale, mart manager Jerh O’Sullivan said: “You certainly can’t fault the trade - if anything the numbers caught us off guard a little this week.

"We thought suckler weanlings weren’t left in those numbers after a busy summer. At the start of June, we were down 500 bulls and 200 heifers compared to last year and we’ve closed that gap with big numbers of weanlings every sale since.

"We had a 99% clearance in the weanlings this week and any day where you hit that you have to be happy. It’s very encouraging to see that and we’ve had serious calves at each of the three show and sales.”

A notable feature of the sale was the number of customers active for weanlings.

“When we went through the invoices, we had 71 individual purchasers of weanlings. When you factor in [that] we had five shippers buying at the ringside and still ended up with that many farmers buying, it great to see.

"That’s a good reflection on trade as a whole. We had 92 different farmers selling weanlings and that should give them great confidence to continue breeding those quality calves and bringing them here.”

Dairy runners

About 90% of what was on offer were suckler calves. Farmers with runners held back as it was a special suckler weanling sale, but dairy-cross stock sold well.

Jerh reported a strong appetite for those calves over the last few weeks.

“They’ve been an exceptionally good trade recently, but were scarce this week. There’s no question there’s demand for them.

"They were scarce this week, but a bunch of six April- and May-born Friesian bulls weighing 201kg, sold for €500 (€2.48/kg).

"A group of Angus bulls, 196kg, made €630 (€3.22/kg), another group of Herefords, 202kg, made €680 (€3.36/kg). That’s how buoyant things are. I think you’ll see more farmers rearing more calves when they see those prices.”