Camera at the Mart: 'these prices are the new norm' - manager

A good proportion of the beef-cross calves and strong Friesian bulls were making anywhere from €200 to €450 in Castleisland Mart for the Co Kerry mart’s weekly calf sale on Monday last.

There was close to 2,000 calves on offer and, like everywhere else, calf prices have risen on the back of increasing beef prices.

Angus- and Hereford-crosses provided the backbone of the sale and stronger calves were especially in demand, with a good share breaking €500 for the really well done stronger traditional beef-cross calf.

Continental-crosses, as ever, took the headline prices, with anywhere from €550 to €700 going here and the high point of the trade saw €820 paid out for a Belgian Blue-cross bull.

Friesian bulls were a scarce commodity. Lighter Friesians were generally making from €120 to €220, with up to €260 and even €300 on occasion.

Speaking after the sale, mart manager Neilus McAuliffe said: “Trade this week was phenomenal. Calf prices seem to be rising and you couldn’t put a price on calves now.

“It’s getting very hard to value them because the price seems to be going up every week. Whitehead [Hereford] bulls were making from €300 to €600 and heifers €270 to €450 and it was the same with the pollys [Angus].

“Belgian Blues and Charolais [are] making up to €850. They’re great people to give the milk to calves down here in Kerry and at least they’re getting well paid this year for it.

“It’s great to see it because there was a time last year when you couldn’t give calves away. We were ringing buyers last year to see were they coming and now they’re ringing us to see what time the sale is starting.”

Here to stay

He believes that the current beef prices look like they’re here to stay.

“I think these prices are going to be the new normal. It’s only now that cattle prices are coming back to where they were before the euro came in.

“When that happened, a calf went from being £400 one spring to €300 the following spring. We’ve a lot of farmers looking for calves.

“There’s a lot of farmers buying calves this year because of the price of stores. Some are reverting back to buying sucks that wouldn’t have bought them in years.

“You also have farmers that bought calves last year that are coming back again and they’re stronger now given how well they got on. That meant shippers have had to give a lot more this year because of the demand from farmer buyers.”

It’s been a busy month for McAuliffe and his team.

“We’re after doing over 10,000 calves across the five Mondays in March here, which is up about 4,000 compared to last year.