With 240 weanling bulls and heifers on offer, Ballymote Mart’s final spring weanling sale consisted of some late spring and summer 2023 calves, with a small portion of quality autumn-born calves also on offer.
Suckler-bred animals dominated, with U and R grading bulls and heifers achieving over €3.20/kg with ease.
Plainer types or those with poor weight for age were below the €3/kg mark, though numbers of these types were small.
Ballymote mart manager David Faughan said: “There was a strong demand overall, particularly from grass buyers, with a high clearance rate.”
In the heifer ring, 170 passed through. Charolais-cross heifers dominated numbers, with the majority of those weighing in the 300kg to 400kg bracket.
Heifers of this weight averaged €3.13kg, up from €2.96/kg on this time last year, while Belgian Blue-cross heifers averaged a hefty €4.17/kg, Charolais-cross €3.04/kg, Limousin-cross €3.29/kg and Angus-cross €2.75/kg.
Lighter heifers weighing 200kg to 300kg averaged €3.25/kg, up 22c/kg on last year, while a small selection of heavy heifers over 400kg averaged €3.31/kg, up 41c/kg on last year.
Some stand-out prices were paid in all weight brackets in the heifer ring for top-quality lots suitable for breeding or fatstock sales, with examples being a Limousin-cross weighing 295kg selling for €1,360 9€4.61/kg), a Limousin-cross weighing 370kg selling for €1,980 (€5.35/kg) and a Limousin-cross weighing 405kg selling for €2,140.
A smaller number of bulls were present, with about 70 lots on offer. Demand was split between farmer buyers for non-continental or lighter type Charolais and Limousin-cross bulls, with exporters shipping to the continent very active for all weights of top-end bulls.
Bull weanlings from 200kg to 300kg recorded the best average price per kilo in the bull ring at €3.37/kg, while bulls weighing 300kg to 400kg averaged €3.01/kg.
In this weight bracket, some better-quality dairy- beef and suckler-bred non-continentals were present and sold for 20c to 25c/kg shy of their continental counterparts. Heavy bulls weighing 400kg-plus were smaller in number, with a mix of exporters and bull beef finishers competing.
