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Ballinasloe Mart’s sheep sale on Thursday evening had a strong entry of lambs for the time of year, with over 125 pens of lambs on offer.
The best trade was for nice-quality Suffolk ewe lambs with breeding potential with a number of buyers in the market for ewe lambs suitable for breeding this year or holding over to hoggets.
A number of pens of lambs weighing 44kg to 46 exceeded the €110 mark, with the best-priced pen of lambs rising to €118.
This pen of 44.5kg Suffolk forward store lambs sold for €93 (€2.09/kg).
There was a number of other pens of similar weight lambs of slightly lower quality which sold from €100 to €109, while average-quality ewe lambs sold back to store lamb prices.
Store prices
The store prices paid on the evening for lowland store lambs weighing 37kg to 42kg ranged on average from €1.95/kg to €2.05/kg.
This pen of 39kg lambs including five ewe lambs, three wethers and one ram lamb sold for €80 (€2.05/kg).
There were a significant number of store lambs in the 32kg to 36kg weight bracket that had no weight shown and these lambs sold on average from €70 to €76. A small number of very poor quality and light lambs sold from €45 to €55.
Heavy lambs
The trade for heavy lambs was steady, with factory lambs weighing 50kg and possessing an average-to-good cover of flesh selling for €100.
Similar weight lambs lacking flesh sold back to €92 for a pen of Galway ram lambs.
These large framed 50kg Galway ram lambs had an average cover of flesh and sold for €92 (€1.84/kg).
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