Thursday’s sale in Ennis Mart in Co Clare saw over 800 cattle on offer with close to 95% sold.

In summary, the trade for bullocks was improved for the week, buoyed by heightened farmer activity thanks to the better weather. Store heifers were pretty much unchanged. Cull cows fell back slightly, reflecting the weakening of cow prices at the factory.

Bullocks

Breaking down the prices in the bullock ring by weight, 400kg to 500kg stores ready for grass averaged a very strong €2.30/kg – a 15c/kg jump.

There was plenty of quality on offer here, with continentals starting at €2.10/kg and rising to a high of €2.77/kg for a pen of five averaging 428kg.

The good-quality continental was easily securing €2.45/kg. Dairy-beef lots ran between €1.50/kg and €2/kg.

Heavier 500kg to 600kg stores averaged €2.16/kg – an almost 5c/kg improvement. Dairy-beef bred cattle ran from €1.80/kg to €2.05/kg and continentals continued from here up to a high of €2.63/kg. The quality animal here regularly crossed €2.35/kg.

Heavy bullocks weighing over 600kg averaged €1.80/kg, with all continentals making over €2/kg to a top of €2.40/kg.

Heifers

Store heifers weighing between 400kg and 500kg averaged €2.11/kg. Plainer heifers – some dairy-beef bred - started at €1.70/kg and the better-quality continentals kicked in at €1.90/kg. From there, they rose to a top of €2.60/kg but, in general, €2.30/kg and upwards was needed to secure the quality animals.

From 500kg to 600kg, heifers averaged €1.97/kg. Dairy-beef crosses put a floor under the prices at €1.50/kg and they quickly climbed to €1.90/kg. Continentals continued up to a top of €2.21/kg. €2.13/kg was the average price for the top-third on quality.

Cows

Close to 200 cows sold into an overall average of €1.44/kg – a 5c/kg drop. Diving into the MartBids figures, Friesian cows started at 68c/kg, rising to over €1.25/kg and a top of €1.40/kg for good, square, well-fleshed cows.

Continental cows started just under the €1.50/kg mark and swiftly climbed north of €1.80/kg for quality, better-fleshed cows, and rose to a top price per kilo of €2.19. The highest cow price on the day was €1,740, given to a 2014-born Charolais cross weighing 890kg.

Ennis Mart

Commission rates are €9.48 to the buyer with the seller subject to a €2 booking fee plus 1.5% commission up to a maximum of €12.

Ennis Mart holds a general cattle sale of bulls, bullocks, heifers and dry cows on Thursdays and a weanling, suckler cow and calf sale every Tuesday.

Analysis for this report was generated from the MartBids app. MartBids is a collaboration between the Irish Farmers Journal and livestock marts. The app is available for download on iPhone or Android on the App Store or Google Play. With this app, all of the information that is displayed on the mart board is now available on your smartphone, long before the animal enters the sales ring.