Tuesday evening’s sale of weanlings at Roscommon Mart attracted just over 230 head of cattle, which was up slightly on a fortnight previous.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, mart manager Tony Conroy said that demand was strong from both farmer buyers and agents, which aided a 95% clearance rate.

A small number of grass buyers were active, mostly operating for lighter heifers, but demand for this stock type is likely to increase in the coming weeks.

Tony said that “the weather is probably holding things back slightly at the moment for grass buyers, but, hopefully, if things pick up in the next week or so, there will be a lot more farmers active at the next weanling sale in a fortnight’s time”.

Continental heifers

Continental heifers from 300kg to 400kg averaged €3.23/kg. Prices hit as high as €4/kg for a 310kg Charolais heifer making €1,240, with a number of stock making north of €3.80/kg where quality was exceptional.

Heavy heifers were in even greater demand, with those over 400kg averaging €3.03/kg, while a selection of nicer Charolais and Limousin heifers made north of €3.25/kg.

A decent entry of bull weanlings saw huge demand, especially for heavy, shorter-keep types. Feeders are seeing a gap in the market in early summer and are doubling down on heavy bulls that will be finished within the next 100 days.

Tony said that “anything over 400kg was being met with huge demand and achieving €3.50/kg to €3.80/kg for the most part. We had a lot of activity for heavy bulls online on the day as well, which was a help.”

With the number of heavy bulls in sales quite small at the moment right across the country, specialist finishers are utilising online bidding to spread their wings across as many sales as possible in order to hoover up available numbers.

Tony concluded that the throughput in the mart has been very strong with 30 pens of bullocks and 25 pens of heifers booked in for Fridays sale as farmers make the most of a buoyant beef market.