Ennis Mart’s sheep sale on Monday painted a similar picture of sales across the country over the last week, with a smaller entry of about 300 head on offer.

The trade for hoggets was broadly in line with the previous week, with prices averaging at €3.84/kg.

The average price per kilo hides variation, with some very heavy hoggets weighing from 60kg to 70kg selling from €3.10/kg to €3.40/kg, while lighter lots weighing around the 50kg mark sold from €3.80/kg to upwards of €4/kg.

Fleshed hoggets weighing from 54kg to in excess of 60kg sold from €215 to €223, with a few lots back to €211/head. Hoggets weighing about 50kg sold in the main from €205 to €210/head.

Spring lambs

Small numbers weighing 48kg to 49kg sold from €196 to €202. A handful of lots of store lambs sold in a firm trade from €4.20/kg to €4.30/kg.

There was just one lot of spring lambs weighing 45kg which sold for €206/head.

An entry of 50 cull ewes averaged €2.66/kg. The pick of these was a few lots of ewes weighing 84kg to 100kg selling from €2.84/kg to €2.90/kg.

Lesser-quality but fleshed ewes sold from €2.57/kg to €2.70/kg, with lots lacking significant flesh cover selling back to €2/kg to €2.20/kg in small numbers.

In pictures

These five large-framed hoggets weighing 70kg sold for €219 (€3.13/kg).

Weighing 59.5kg, these Charollais-cross hoggets sold for €219 (€3.64/kg).

This pair of Texel-cross ewes weighing 84kg sold for €240 (€2.86/kg).

This batch of seven cull ewes weighing 91kg sold for €264 (€2.90/kg).

This 115kg Charolais-cross cull ewe sold for €234 (€2.03/kg).

Weighing 45kg, this pair of Charolais-cross lambs sold for €206 each (€4.58/kg).

These Texel crossbred ewe hoggets weighing 49kg sold for €199 (€4.06/kg).

This batch of four heavy hoggets weighing 70kg sold for €214 (€3.06/kg).

Weighing 100kg, these four large-framed cull ewes sold for €284 (€2.84/kg).