The mart trade continued its strong start to 2024 this week, with a very steady trade being reported all over the country over the last seven days.

Mart managers are reporting huge demand from both factories and wholesalers for fleshed cows, with some exceptional prices being paid again this week for good-quality cows this week.

One of the stand-out prices this week was a 925kg cow in Dowra Mart, Co Cavan, selling for €4,020 or €4.10/kg.

There were over 200 cows in the sale, with 70 of them fetching prices of over €2,000 and several selling for over €3.00/kg.

Taking a look at this week’s Martbids analysis table, it’s dominated by green arrows, which is always a good sign of the mart trade.

Bullocks remain in big demand, with feeding bullocks in the 350kg to 500kg weight bracket being the highlight of this week’s trade.

Heavy bullocks were back a little on last week to €3.07/kg for top-end bullocks over 600kg.

It was a similar story in the heifer rings this week, with big competition for top-end feeding heifers that required two to three months of feeding. Factories appear to have given the nod to the feeders to buy away for a May/June finish.

Top-quality 400kg to 500kg heifers hit €3.08/kg this week - up 17c/kg on last week.

Top-end weanlings were also very hot this week, with a number of exporters adding more life to the trade.

Top-quality 300kg to 400kg bull weanlings hit €3.40/kg this week, up 26c/kg on last week.

Live exports

While 2023 will go down as a very positive one for live exports, 2024 is off to a flying start.

The last 12 months saw total live exports increase by 13% to 322,679 cattle exported in 2023.

The majority of this increase is being driven by calf exports, which were up 21% or 36,000 on the 2022 figure.

Three large shipments of cattle have departed Irish shores in the first few days of January.

In the first two weeks of January, almost 6,000 cattle have bee exported. Some 3,304 cattle have been exported to Israel, while 1,964 have been exported to Algeria.

Disease restrictions in France and Spain is driving demand for Irish cattle both within and outside Europe. Reducing cattle herds in Europe is also contributing to a stable demand for Irish livestock.

Increasing live exports to Northern Ireland are expected, with tighter cattle supplies there predicted in 2024, along with a wider price differential in beef prices.

The outlook for live exports remains very positive in the short-term outlook, but the medium-term outlook remains challenging with ongoing pressures on the trade.

This includes NGOs campaigning against live exports, changing EU legislation on live exports and the age at which calves can travel at.

Ireland’s disease status with particular reference to IBR could also have an impact on future live exports, along with ferry companies changing their policy. These are all coupled with potentially more export-type calves coming on the market in the future.