Exporters have lit up the weanling trade this week, with a number of the country’s leading exporters clashing in a few marts.

It’s always good to see some rough and tumble around mart rings. It’s a way more worrying sight to see everybody getting along and smiling - that’s a sure sign of a poor trade.

When the lads around the ring are taking chunks out of other, it’s usually a good sign of the trade.

There were a few fiery exchanges in a number of marts this week, as exporters begin to feel the pressure to fill orders.

Weanling numbers aren’t as plentiful as they were in autumn and the supply-demand shift has definitely favoured any farmers selling weanlings over the last few weeks.

It was a pretty steady week in relation to the trade, with just a low level of disruption from weather affecting sailings.

There is still a huge gap between the calf under 50kg and the calf over 50kg - regardless of breed.

Marts continue to turn away calves which are very light.

The message for strong calves seems to be getting through to dairy farmers, with a lot lower numbers of very light calves being presented at sales.

Analysis table

Taking a look at this week’s Martbids analysis table, we see a lot of green arrows again, always a sign of a good trade.

Top-end bullocks were up from 2c to 17c/kg this week, with lighter bullocks in the 350kg to 400kg range seeing the biggest rise. This is on the back of a few more grass buyers in the south of the country starting to move out.

Average bullocks in the 350kg to 400kg weight bracket were up 13c/kg this week. Top prices went to the 500kg to 600kg bullocks this week, with the top third coming in at €3.23/kg, while the average bullock came in at €2.80/kg.

Moving to the heifer rings, it was a similar story, with heavy heifers seeing a marked increase on the previous week.

Heavy heifers over 600kg were up 17c/kg to €3.27/kg this week. Average heifers across all weights all broke the €2.80/kg barrier this week, with top call going to 600kg-plus heifers coming in at €2.92/kg, up 9c/kg on the previous week.

The highlight of this week was the weanling bull rings, with exporters driving demand.

Pressure

A number of exporters are under pressure to fill contracts, with everybody upping the bidding activity this week to make sure they secured the required numbers of calves.

Bull weanlings in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket saw the largest increases this week, up between 20c and 22c/kg or €70/head on a 350kg weanling.

Top-quality bull weanlings in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket came in at €3.84/kg. Heavier weanlings were also up in price, with 450kg-plus weanlings coming in at €3.43/kg, up 11c/kg on the week.

In the heifer rings, it was a similar story, with heavy weanling heifers seeing the largest increase this week.

Top-end heavy heifer weanlings over 450kg were up 22c/kg this week to €3.57/kg.

Poorer-quality lighter heifers also took a lift this week, again on the back of some grass demand starting to take hold.

Lesser-quality dairy beef weanling heifers in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket came in at €2.53/kg this week.