Last week was a pretty quiet week on the marts front, with a lot of marts not getting back into action until this week.

For the marts that did run sales last week, numbers were generally very low.

The trade has started off very steady and, in some cases, would be up a little on where it was before Christmas, especially in the cow rings.

Weanlings also remain a solid trade and with another big boat load of weanlings departing this week for the Middle East, the hope is that exporters will be back around the ring again buying for another order.

The cull cow trade has started off very strong. Factory prices for cows have increased and there is big demand for manufacturing beef in the market, so this has driven on the price paid in marts this week as well.

Roscrea Mart had just over 450 cull cows through the ring at last Saturday’s special sale of cull cows.

The trade was described as electric by Central Auctions general manager Michael Harty, with customers from both north and south vying it out for cows at the sale.

The most appetite was from factories for slaughter-fit cows, with wholesalers and factory agents battling to secure supplies.

Slaughter-fit cows were the best trade, with five well-fleshed Friesian cows weighing 611kg selling for €1,230 each.

The top money went to the continentals, with the top call of €4,180 going to a March 2018-born Belgian Blue cow weighing 980kg. She was bought for export to Holland.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Central Auctions general marts manager Michael Harty said: “We had great demand for both heifers and cows at our two sales at the end of last week.

“Factories and feeders have shown no signs of any Christmas slowdown and are back around the ring as hungry as ever for cattle.

“The cow trade has probably surprised us all, with some exceptional prices being paid for fat cows at last Saturday’s sale.”

Some marts are actually advertising to get stock for prospective buyers.

A number of marts have put out calls this week for Aberdeen Angus bullocks and heifers on the back of big feeder demand.

Some factories appear to be concerned about supplies from March to May and have given the nod to some of their larger factory owned or aligned feedlots to fill up again for a late spring finish.

Taking a look at this week’s Martbids analysis table, we see that top-end bullocks crossed the €3/kg barrier to come in at €3.12/kg this week.

Average-quality bullocks in the 500kg to 600kg weight bracket came in at €2.58/kg this week, with factory feeders very hungry for the forward store bullock this week.

It was a similar story in the heifer rings, with top-end heifers coming in at €3.03/kg this week.

Poorer-quality dairy crosses in the 400kg to 500kg weight bracket were coming in from €2.30/kg to €2.50/kg depending on type.

Weanlings also remain a very good trade, with the top third of bull weanlings in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket coming in at €2.98/kg this week.