The mart trade continues to drive on, with farmers out in force this week driving the lighter weanling market in particular.

Exporters continue to command all the power in the market for 300kg and upwards weanlings, with no sign of the export trade slowing down anytime soon.

Record numbers of roll-on roll-off trucks are being booked for crossings to Africa, with weanlings taking an initial sea journey to France and then travelling by road to the south of France to a lairage facility and then taking the final leg of their journey to north Africa.

The Finola M livestock carrier is due to dock in Ireland next week and is one of a number of ships due to be loaded with weanlings and store cattle over the next few weeks.

The number of cattle exported in 2024 has now surpassed 310,000 head and is expected to rise a lot further in the last few weeks of 2024.

A tightening in cattle supplies across Europe, along with disease restrictions in some countries, is driving the demand for Irish cattle.

Weanling exports are running 27% ahead of 2023 levels, while store cattle exports are 42% ahead of 2023 levels.

The level of exports is starting to cause some concern in beef processor circles around a certain tightening in supply of finished cattle in 2025.

Mart managers are also raising concerns about the availability of good-quality store bullocks for the grass trade next autumn such is the number of cattle leaving the country at the moment.

The live trade to Northern Ireland also remains very firm, with numbers similar to 2023.

Trade has picked up in recent weeks, with an increased number of animals travelling north for direct slaughter and for further feeding.

Taking a look at this week’s Martbids analysis table, we see that it was the light weanling bulls that were the highlight of this week’s trade.

Top-quality weanling bulls in the 200kg to 300kg weight bracket were up a massive 35 c/kg this week, with average-quality bulls in the same weight bracket up 49c/kg.

There were a number of reports of light Aberdeen Angus bull calves in the 250kg weight bracket making over €3/kg this week in marts in the south.

Light weanling heifers also saw a price rise, with top-quality weanling heifers in the 200kg to 300kg weight bracket coming in at €3.25/kg, up 26c/kg on the previous week.

Store heifers came in at a similar trade to last week, with heavy heifers back a little.

Bullocks saw a very solid week’s trading with prices up across the board. Top-quality store bullocks in the 500kg to 600kg weight bracket came in at €3.38/kg this week, up 22c/kg on the previous week.

Average bullocks in the same weight category came in at €2.93/kg, up 15c/kg.

Dry cows

The dry cow trade also improved this week, with the top third of dry cows selling for €2.79/kg this week.

Average-quality cows were back at €2.12/kg, while dairy cows were back at €1.44/kg.

Parlour cows continue to struggle, with the general run of cows lacking flesh coming in at 90c/kg to €1.20/kg this week.