The mart trade continues to operate at a steady pace this week, with numbers a little lower on the back of good weather and the National Ploughing Championships taking place in Ratheniska, Co Laois.

Demand is good, with factory-aligned feedlots particularly hungry for cattle this week in marts.

They are competing with farmer finishers and exporters to fill their sheds for a late autumn or early winter finish.

Ciaran Lynch had a big sale of bullocks in Elphin Mart on Wednesday, with over 500 bullocks sold. There was serious demand for good-quality bullocks from both northern and southern customers.

“I’ve been saying it for a while now, but the good-quality bullock and heifer is definitely reducing in terms of numbers coming out.

“It’s a combination of a number of factors, I think. Firstly, there is less suckler cows calving so that’s going to have an impact. Secondly, you have a lot of farmers going organic especially in the west and that means less cows or no cows on those farms depending on the circumstances.

“The third thing is we have seen a really good 12 months for exports of weanlings, so that means less store bullocks and heifers coming around 12 months later.”

It’s not all bad news though, with Lynch saying: “I suppose there is a silver lining and that is the farmers with the good-quality bullocks and heifers are really getting rewarded for top-quality sock at the moment, with buyers willing to go to any lengths to get a batch of good-quality cattle.”

A few autumn sales of in-calf heifers have already taken place, with some good prices being paid for quality heifers.

Some mart managers are reporting that they are seeing some suckler farmers keeping fewer cows but moving up a notch in terms of quality.

Cull cows are coming into €2,000 to €2,500/head, so that means there’s money in the pocket going to replace them and that’s probably adding some life into the replacement heifer trade at the moment.

Martbids database

Taking a look at this week’s Martbids analysis, we see that heifers had the best week in terms of trading, with almost all weight and quality categories taking a lift.

Average-quality heifers over 600kg came in at €3.05/kg this week, a lift of 31c//kg on the previous week.

Poorer-quality dairy-cross heifers, predominantly Aberdeen Angus and Hereford heifers, came in at €2.46/kg this week, with factories driving the trade for these.

Bullocks had another solid week’s trading, with top-end bullocks over 600kg coming in at €3.03/kg this week, a reduction of 10c/kg. Average-quality bullocks came in at €2.76/kg.

Friesian bullocks also met good demand this week, with exporters driving the trade, with a few southern marts reporting better-quality Friesian bullocks coming in at €2.30/kg.

Weanlings also continue to meet good demand, with top-quality weanling bulls in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket continuing to knock on the door of €4/kg. Average bulls in the same weight bracket came in at €3.36/kg this week.

In the weanling heifer rings, it was a similar story to last week, with prices generally unchanged.

Average-quality heifers in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket came in at €3.05/kg this week.