Martbids Database: live exporters drive the trade

The weanling trade continues to hit new highs, with the top third of bull calves in a number of weight categories this week.

The €5/kg barrier has been broken on lots of occasions over the last few weeks, but when you see the top third of weanlings coming in over €5/kg, you know that the weanling trade is in serious go forward mode.

Weanling numbers are small at this time of year and, like everything else, the tightness in supply is helping drive prices.

A big increase in factory returns is fuelling cattle buyers anxious to source cattle before the big surge in grass buyers come out to purchase stock.

The next two weeks are important for some of the grass buyers who purchase cattle for seven months to meet the requirements of the Areas of Natural Constraints Scheme (ANC).

These buyers always add some life to the mart trade, in that for some it’s a matter of quality over quantity, with some willing to go over and above to get the right cattle.

Lighting up the marts

Mart managers are also reporting that live exporters continue to light up marts in the last week, with many having to raise the bar to get sufficient numbers of weanling to fill big contracts for European and north African markets.

Bluetongue is still in the back of minds of many exporters and it’s “out of season” spread is causing great concern to both buyers and sellers across Europe.

Irish Farmers’ Association animal health chair TJ Maher said: “In the event of a bluetongue 3 or 12 outbreak, countries have had their live exports stopped completely from within the 150km radius control zone. Farmers have experienced huge animal losses in some instances. Vaccines under special licence have been used, with some member states supporting the costs of these.

“These are some of the issues we need to have answers to. While we remain free of the disease, now is the time to put the plans in place.”

He called on the Minister to convene a working group of stakeholders to establish the most appropriate approach to take should the need arise.

Taking a look at this week’s Martbids analysis table, we see that it was another very good week for the mart trade, with this week’s table dominated by green arrows again, showing price increases in almost every quality and weight category.

Light bullocks saw some big increases, with the top third of bullocks in the 350kg to 400kg weight bracket coming in at €4.38/kg, 18c/kg higher than the previous week.

Average-quality bullocks and poorer-quality Friesian bullocks also saw similar increases, with Friesian bullocks in the 350kg to 400kg weight bracket coming in at €3.10/kg this week.

Heavy bullocks were a solid trade also, with average-quality bullocks over 600kg coming in at €3.87/kg, unchanged from the previous week.

Weanlings saw a big jump, especially for those in the top-quality bracket. For the first time in the history of our Martbids analysis, the top third of weanlings in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket broke the €5/kg barrier, with these weanlings coming in at €5.06/kg this week, up 28c/kg on the previous week.