All marts have now been firmly kicked into gear and have their first sales under their belt.

On last week’s analysis, we recorded roughly 6,600 cattle pass through marts, while this past week has seen 11,334 cattle pass through the ring of marts associated with Martbids.

Even more positive than the increase in numbers has been the increase in price, with the analysis on the right showing green arrows nearly across the board, and not just by 3c or 4c/kg either.

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Talking to mart managers this week, it was noted that the cull cow trade continued to be strong on the back of factory prices being rock steady for the last number of weeks.

Numbers of cull cows actually slipped this week by about 140 head on our figures, though prices increased between 10c and 11c/kg to bring top-end cull cows averaging €3.70/kg and bottom-end cows €2.45/kg.

Many managers have also reported increased demand for weanlings, particularly bull weanlings suitable for export.

The gap closing between steer and heifer prices this week is perhaps the most noticeable thing, with bullocks of all weights increasing heavily in price, while heifers only increased marginally or coming down a few c/kg.

Lighter bullocks are a super trade at the minute, with a huge increase of 60c/kg on the average-quality bullock between 350kg and 400kg.

While this may pale in comparison to bull weanlings of the same weight, the quality of these bullocks would be much lower, so comparing one against the other is comparing apples and oranges.

Bullocks weighing 400kg to 500kg averaged €4.16/kg this week, a jump of 36c/kg on the week previous, with top-quality bullocks of this weight jumping by 62c/kg.

Bullocks in the 500kg to 600kg weight bracket and those weighing 600kg-plus are all trading at much the same price.

Average-quality lots are selling just above the €4/kg mark, while top-end bullocks are 40c to 45c/kg above this and poorer-quality lots 30c/kg below.

Heifers are seeing much less of an anomaly between weights and prices, with lighter heifers comparable to their heavier counterparts.

Increases has been lower, with a slight slippage in price of heavier lots. The top third of heifers of any weight are averaging €4.39/kg to €4.55/kg, while just a 3c/kg margin exists between heavy heifer average price (€3.99/kg) and light heifers (€4.02/kg).

Weanlings

Weanling numbers are well up this week, with close on 700 extra bull weanlings.

Lighter bulls have been more positive than heavy, while heifer weanling prices have matched or superseded bull prices this last week

The sweet spot seems to be animals from 300kg to 400kg, with these bull calves most sought after by exporters.

Average price for these lots came in at €5.02/kg, though the top third of this weight were 89c/kg sharper, while the bottom third were 91c/kg below.

Weanling heifers jumped by an average of 40c to 47c/kg, leaving the average-quality weanling heifer sitting just below €5/kg.