Following Tuesday’s cattle sale, Ennis Mart manager Martin McNamara said: “It’s hard to believe that, overall, the average price is only €3/head less than it was this week last year.”

He added that “to be fair, last year was a tough year too with the dry conditions but it’s still hard to believe it given the uncertainty at present”.

McNamara attributed the good money per head to two things – a very steady heifer trade and heavier bulls entering the ring.

“The heifer trade is very solid at the moment,” he said. “On a per-kilo basis, they are nearly better than the bulls.”

Furthermore, he said that “bulls are coming into the ring this year 50kg to 75kg heavier than the same type of animal 12 months ago.” This is an obvious result of the good grass-growing year.

Uncertainty

McNamara said that “in all my years in this business, I don’t think I’ve ever seen things as volatile or as uncertain as they are now”. He acknowledged that “the only saving grace is that the weather has been good this year and grass is good so cattle are thriving and costs are low”.

He also said that “the specialist bull finishers appear to be sticking with the bulls, but the less specialised operator or the farmers struggling to hit the specifications are opting to reverse back to castrated animals.” Tables 1 to 3 give the full breakdown of prices from the sale.

Bulls

From 200kg to 300kg, quality lots made in excess of €2.70/kg. The sale average was €2.53/kg. Moving up in weight, weanling bulls from 300kg to 400kg averaged €2.33/kg but the top prices climbed to over €2.55/kg.

Heavy bull weanlings, over 400kg, averaged just over the €2.10/kg mark with the tops regularly hitting over €2.30/kg

In terms of bullocks, €2.17/kg was the average price for the lighter animal while the better-quality animal was making over €2.50/kg.

From 400kg to 500kg, the average was €2.11/kg and cattle with better conformation made over €2.50/kg.

Heavier bullocks, over 500kg, averaged €1.80/kg with the tops on quality hitting over €2.10/kg.

Heifers

Weanling heifers from 300kg to 400kg made €2.07/kg on average with the best quality commanding prices closer to €2.22/kg.

Store heifers under 400kg made just over €2/kg, on average.

Moving up in weights, animals from 400kg to 500kg averaged €1.95/kg but better-quality lots made €2.20/kg. The heavier 500kg to 600kg heifer made €1.70/kg on average and the top ones made over €2/kg.

Ennis sale

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.