Heavy cattle have seen a bounce in the trade in marts, with mart managers reporting a sharper trade all round for mart sales held earlier this week.

Some mart managers are also reporting increased activity from Northern Ireland based farmers and agents for forward stores in marts.

Heavy dry cows have also kicked on this week. Factories are getting loads of P grading dairy cows, but good quality cows are in shorter supply and prices for good quality cull suckler cows have improved a little in marts. The top 33% of cows came in at €2.68/kg this week, 10 cent/kg up on the previous week.

Heavy cattle saw the biggest improvement this week.

Top quality heavy bullocks were up 6 cent/kg, while the trade or lighter bullocks held very firm, with little change on last week’s trade.

Top quality heavy heifers over 600kg came in at €3.17/kg, up 18 cent/kg on the previous week’s trading.

Average heifers over 600kg were also up 12 cent/kg to €2.89/kg.

Weanlings seen some movement with the demand for heavy weanlings back a little. The 300-400kg weight bracket remained very steady, with top quality bull weanlings in the 300-400kg range coming in at €3.62/kg.

Heifer weanlings were also a similar trade to last week, with top quality 300-400kg heifer weanlings coming in at €3.19/kg.

Live Exports

Live export numbers continue to push on. There have been 247,485 cattle exported from Ireland for the first six months of 2024.

If the current trend continues, 2024 is likely to be a record year for cattle exports. Good numbers of cattle are continuing to leave the country on a weekly basis, with steady demand for Irish cattle in key export markets.

So far in 2024, 188,483 Irish calves have been exported, a 5% reduction on 2023 when 197,907 calves were exported during the same period.The Netherlands remains the largest market outlet for Irish calves so far in 2024, with 77,089 animals exported, a 26% reduction from 2023 levels.

Nitrates issues and a scaling back of the veal industry in the Netherlands has led to a lower demand for Irish calves in 2024.

Spain remains an important market for older beef sired calves, with 65,666 calves exported to Spain so far this year, a 27% increase from the same period last year.

Trade with central and eastern Europe has also been firm, with big numbers of calves exported to Poland, Romania, Hungary and Croatia so far in 2024.

With a drop in cattle availability in many parts of Europe due to Bluetounge restrictions, there has been a huge demand for Irish cattle from an international trading perspective.

Several large consignments of weanling, store and adult cattle have departed Ireland destined for Israel, Algeria and Morocco in the first half of 2024

The trade with the UK has seen 25,225 (+1%) cattle making the journey to Northern Ireland, where tighter cattle supplies and firm demand for beef are underpinning demand for Irish store cattle.

A further 3,035 animals have been exported to Great Britain so far this year, primarily dairy females for British dairy farms.