The mart trade saw a mixed week of trading. Good-quality continental cattle are in demand, with large feeders and feedlots very active in the last few weeks.

NI customers are also back ringside and online, buying cattle for further feeding.

This has helped the trade of the top-quality continental cattle.

Dry cows also saw a positive week’s trading, with the top third of cows coming in at €2.97/kg this week, up 29c/kg on the previous week’s trading.

Trade

Dowra Mart saw €3,000 being paid for an 11-year-old Charolais cow weighing 1,000kg last Saturday.

Average-quality cows came in at €2.18/kg, up on last week’s trading, while poorer-quality Friesian cows came in at €1.53/kg this week, a similar trade to last week.

Factory agents continue to be very hungry for well-fleshed heavy cows, with less appetite for the lighter dairy cow in the last two weeks.

Last week’s cow kill dropped by almost 600 head, so agents are on the hunt for factory-finished cows.

Exporters continue to be extremely active, paying up to and over €4/kg for quality bull weanlings in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket this week. The main Irish exporters are competing very heavily against each other to secure supplies for contracts to be filled through the next six months.

The good prices have meant a steady flow of autumn weanlings to marts, especially in the west, has taken place over the last two months.

It has also seen some farmers offload cattle at weanling stage, as opposed to normally bringing them through to store stage, which could lead to some issues with the supply of top-quality bullocks for the store trade.

Martbids database

Taking a look at this week’s Irish Farmers Journal Martbids analysis table, we see that the bullock trade had a pretty steady week’s trading with lighter bullocks up a little and heavier bullocks seeing some reductions off a string week last week.

Average-quality bullocks in the 500kg to 600kg weight bracket came in at €2.63/kg this week, the same as last week.

Top-quality bullocks came in at €2.98/kg this week, back 2c/kg in the previous week.

Moving on to the heifers, it was a similar story, with lighter heifers coming out on top this week.

Top-quality heifers in the 500kg to 600kg weight bracket came in at €2.98/kg this week, back 9c/kg on last week.

Lighter top-end heifers in the 400kg to 500kg weight bracket came in at €3.01/kg, up 7c/kg on the previous week.

Bull weanlings saw a mixed week, with 300kg to 400kg bull weanlings meeting best demand.

Top-quality weanlings in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket came in at €3.62/kg this week, a similar price to last week.

Heavier bull weanlings over 400kg were back a shade on last week, with top-quality weanlings in the 400kg to 450kg weight bracket coming in at €3.25/kg this week.

Heifer weanlings saw a better trade this week, with average heifer weanlings in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket coming in at €2.88/kg.