It’s been a slow start to 2026 for mart sales across the country with smaller sales than usual taking place, particularly in the northwest.

A strong autumn 2025 weanling trade and reduced numbers of suckler cows in the west of Ireland are being seen as key drivers of the reduced numbers at the start of 2026. Taking a look at the Irish Farmers Journal Martbids database we see that total numbers being sold through marts have dropped by 17% for the first 11 weeks of 2026. January sales were on a par with 2025 sales figures, with February sales seeing a 24% drop. There was some recovery in March but throughput is still running 15% behind 2025 figures up until 18 March.

Connacht has experienced one of the biggest drops with a 22% fall off in cattle numbers going through marts so far in 2026.

ADVERTISEMENT

Calf registrations in suckler herds have been falling for the last number of years with 46,000 fewer suckler cow calf registrations in 2025 compared to 2024 followed by a further 24,000 head drop in 2025. Interestingly, in 2026 suckler calf registrations have seen a rebound with just over 12,000 extra suckler births registered to suckler cows for the first 11 weeks of the year.

Dairy calves

Dairy cow calf registrations have also seen reductions in the last two years with 30,000 fewer dairy calf registrations in 2025 and 11,000 fewer in 2024. Dairy calf registrations have also seen an improvement in 2026 with over 25,000 more births registered to dairy cows in the first 11 weeks of 2026 compared with the same period in 2025.

Weather and a slower export trade have also likely had an effect on numbers. It’s been a slow spring in terms of turnout and a lot of farmers who sell store cattle wait for the grass trade until they present cattle for sale. Delayed turnout has also slowed some farmers selling cattle and some mart managers are expecting a compensatory effect in April due to lower numbers earlier in the year.

Many farmers who would usually winter weanlings and sell in spring opted to capitalise on the positive trade and offload earlier in 2025 for fear the buoyant trade wouldn’t continue through to 2026.

The lower numbers are causing some concern particularly for smaller marts where overhead costs continue to increase with increased numbers needed to pay the increased costs of running a mart. In light of higher costs and decreasing numbers, many marts have been left with no option but to increase both buying and selling commission rates over the last 12 months.

This year’s figures follow on from reduced numbers in marts for 2025. In terms of the whole country there were 61,824 fewer cattle presented for sale in 2025 compared to 2024.

Marts play a critical role in rural Ireland both as a social meeting point for farmers but also as a fair-trading place for buying and selling stock.