It’s been a mixed week in the mart trade business, with weanling prices seeing a rebound on last week’s drop, while the bullock and heifer trade appears to be under a little pressure, especially at the lighter end of the weight categories.

Poorer-quality dairy-cross cattle are probably being hardest hit, with grass buyers more cautious this week in light of the tough weather and ground conditions.

Average-quality bullocks in the 400kg to 500kg category came in at €2.80/kg this week, seeing a small drop of 3c/kg on last week’s price.

The top-end 400kg to 500kg bullock was back 7c/kg to €3.26/kg, with poorer-quality Friesian bullocks coming in at €2.33/kg this week.

Moving on to the heifer rings, we see a lot of red arrows on this week’s Martbids analysis table.

Top-end heifers saw the biggest drop, with 400kg to 500kg heifers back 6c/kg this week to €3.18/kg.

Average heifers in the same weight category came in at €2.86/kg, while the poorer-quality dairy-cross heifers came in at €2.54/kg, down 4c/kg on last week.

The weanling trade saw a bounce-back, with both exporters and farmer buyers competing strongly for stock.

Top-end weanling bulls in the 300kg to 400kg category came in at €3.74/kg this week, an improvement of 5c/kg on last week’s price. Heifer calves saw a similar improvement, with prices for 300kg to 400kg weanling heifers up between 4c and 5c/kg this week.

Mart manager views

Speaking to mart managers, they see a higher number of autumn-born weanlings being sold at this time of year.

Farmers are cashing in on the good prices and weaning cows to help cope with the weather situation in some cases.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Clare Marts general manager Martin McNamara said: “The trade has been holding up very well, despite the bad month of weather we have just had.

“We have probably seen some of the 2022-born bullocks and heifers ease back a little in the last two weeks, but that was off a huge high in late February and early March.

“The weanling trade remains very strong, with farmer buyers and exporters both competing against each other for weanlings.

“They aren’t all working in the top-quality category either, with a number of exporters filling different contracts at the moment.

“This means they are in the market for some of the plainer types as well as the top-end weanlings,” he said.

Moving further north, Ballyjamesduff Mart manager John Tevlin was also positive about the trade.

“We’ve seen a lot of northern activity over the last few weeks. Store cattle have been very dear in the North and some of these buyers see some value coming south for their supplies.

“We have also seen a lift in the number of suck calves moving north in the last month. We had over 100 calves exported north out of this week’s sale, with a few customers for different types of calves.

“The good-quality animal is still a very good trade, with the plainer dairy-cross animal probably a little easier this week.”