After livestock marts were granted permission to continue trading on a restricted basis 10 days ago, many marts resumed with calf sales last week.

The majority of these sales involved a drop-and-go format for sellers and the mart then penned the calves and arranged buyers to view the yard of calves on a one-by-one basis and offers were placed accordingly. The manner in which calves were valued and how deals were agreed varied from mart to mart.

The widespread opinion from mart managers is that process is proving to be extremely time-consuming, but it is good, and vitally important, to be able to resume calf trading.

Numbers

Over 600 calves were traded in MartBids marts last week, with two-thirds of these being males. By breed, over 50% of male calves traded were Friesian or Friesian-cross, with Angus and Hereford-cross calves accounting for another 15% and 20% respectively.

Prices

Table 1 shows the average prices for male calves, as well as the average of the top-third of prices and the bottom-third of prices, to show the typical range, depending on quality.

Table 2 takes on a similar format, but for heifer calves.

Albeit from a low number of calves and an unsettled trade the week before, price trends show a €5/head rise for Friesian bull calves on average, while Friesian-cross bull calves improved by a strong €20/head. Angus-cross and Hereford-cross bulls were up €5/head and €40/head respectively.

For the females, Angus-crosses and Hereford-crosses both picked up by €20/head.