The recent lift in the store lamb trade was very evident in Blessington Mart’s sheep sale on Tuesday. Manager John Doyle reported demand rising over the last month, boosted by strong grass supplies, attracting more buyers to sales and competing with specialised finishers.

A high percentage of lambs on offer were Suffolk and Cheviot bred, with demand strong irrespective of weight or animal type. Good quality lowland stores sold from €2.10/kg to €2.30/kg, with lambs weighing 37kg to 41kg selling from €85 to €93 per head. Cheviot store lambs sold from €2.00/kg to €2.10/kg for light lambs weighing 30kg to 35kg with heavier and crossbred types selling to €2.20/kg.

The window in price between store and finished lambs has tightened in recent weeks. Good quality slaughter-fit lambs weighing 49kg to 52kg sold from €104 to €108 per head, with the top-priced pen of lambs rising to €112 per head for a pen of fleshed 55kg wether lambs.

There was a premium payable for good quality Suffolk Cheviot cross and Cheviot breeding ewe lambs, with the highest quality Suffolk cross lambs selling from €105 to €121 for lambs weighing 37kg to 44kg. Cheviot ewe lambs for breeding sold from €60 to €70 over the weight.

John Doyle says a positive feature of sales in the back-end of the year has been the trade for breeding sheep and cull ewes. He says breeding sales were firm throughout the autumn with a lift in farmer demand leading to a strong finish. A few pens of tail-end full and broken mouth Cheviot ewes guaranteed good in the udder sold from €85 to €110 per head, with younger second and third crop ewes rising to over €130 per head. Feeding ewes sold from €70 to €90 per head with fleshed light carcase ewes selling to €100 and fleshed lowland ewes selling to a top of €120. John adds that the favourable year has been a big contributor to improved confidence, with lambs showing the benefits of favourable grazing conditions. This brought more sheep onto the market earlier, with peak sales at the end of September and into October exceeding 4,000 sheep on offer. Sales have started to quieten in the last two weeks, with Tuesday’s sale comprising 2,860 sheep on offer, with supplies of finished lambs and cull ewes tightening.

See www.farmersjournal.ie for more photos and prices.