The Martbids Database table doesn’t make for pretty reading this week for anyone looking to offload cattle in the next number of weeks.

Data collected this week across our 30-plus marts show a sea of red arrows, with some dramatic price drops witnessed over the week, particularly for light heifers, heavy bullocks and the majority of weanlings.

While we had been eager to unlock the potential to export store and breeding cattle to Northern Ireland following bluetongue restrictions, the opening up of trade between south and north appears to have done little to stem the sliding mart trade.

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There have been no major slippages in store prices, but gradual decreases (with intermittent increases) have chipped away at prices over the last few weeks and months.

It’s the same story with heifers, with some see-sawing on price, but an indisputable decrease.

If we look back at five months ago in mid-October when cattle prices were at fever pitch, store heifers weighing 400kg to 500kg were sitting at €4.49/kg, while heavy heifers over 600kg were sitting snuggly at €4.45/kg.

The same heifer weights this week are coming to €4.17/kg and €3.95/kg. That’s a 32c/kg difference for store heifers, but a massive 50c/kg difference for a finished beef heifer.

Had you purchased a store heifer weighing 420kg in October at this average price, she would have cost you close to €1,900 with commission included.

Cover costs

Fast forward to that heifer today weighing in at 620kg and she is coming into a price of €2,449. Is €549 enough to cover all costs and leave a margin?

For many it won’t be and they will feel the sting of these high store prices, but it was a case of face a huge tax bill or roll the dice on beef price.

Fewer and fewer will take the gamble in the future.

Weanling price too has taken a hammering this week, with all averages now below €5/kg for the first time in months.

Weather has its part to play in this, but a weakening beef price is the main culprit.

Going back to that same date in October that we looked at earlier, bull and heifer weanlings weighing 300kg to 400kg were averaging €5.43/kg and €5.62/kg respectively, with this week’s prices back to €4.98/kg and €4.91/kg.

Exporters were thought to have driven bull prices at the time, even though heifers were outperforming them on a price-per-kilo basis.

Now we have seen a massive 71c/kg slashed off heifer weanling prices, after farmers feeding and keeping weanlings over the winter months.

Will we see an increase in price should the sun dry out ground and shed doors open? It’s hard to know.

It may stem the flow, but it will be largely dictated by finished beef price, which will either give confidence or a lack there of to those going out buying cattle.

The cull cow trade has been the steady ship in all this, though numbers of cows have dropped hard, with less than 500 head of cows passing through Martbids marts this week from a high of over 1,100 within the last six weeks.

Top -end culls are selling at an average of €3.58/kg, with average-quality lots at €2.96/kg, both back by 1c/kg. The bottom third of cows traded at €2.41/kg average, up 1c/kg.