Weanling sales are now getting into full flow, and to give you an idea of what exactly yours are worth, we have analysed the Irish Farmers Journal MartBids database. This data incorporates all of last week’s weanling sales. To give a comparison, in Table 3, we used the data from the same week of 2019 to show how the weanling trade is currently performing.

At a quick glance, it’s easy to see that we have got off to a great start. The buoyant trade witnessed at marts over the past few months seems to be continuing on to the autumn weanling trade.

Most parts of the country have witnessed big volumes of rain over the past week so this may start to have an effect. People buying at this time of year are in most cases hoping to get at least another two months on grass before housing. Any shortening of this time frame could lead to a reduction in prices ringside.

Table 3 shows that the majority of weight divisions for both males and females have seen a significant increase. While heifers over 450kg have seen strong increases, it must be noted that these figures are derived from a very small data pool.

However, there were substantial numbers in the rest of the weight divisions.

Light weanling bulls are roughly on par with 2019, whereas light weanling heifers rose by 19c/kg on average. Seeing the biggest increase in this weight division was the lesser-type animal, which rose by 36c/kg.

In general, the biggest increases across the board came in the 300kg to 400kg weight category. On average, weanling bulls rose by 24c/kg and heifers by 23c/kg compared with 2019.

Looking at the top third of heifers in this weight range, we see prices up by 29c/kg at €2.67.

The top third of bulls of the same weight had an average of €2.70/kg, but the increase on the year is only about half that of the heifers at 15c/kg.

Heavier bulls saw a similar increase across the board, while heavier heifers were one of the only sections to see a drop.

Breeds

In Tables 1 and 2, we break down these weanling prices by breed. For example, if we look at a Limousin cross weanling heifer weighing between 300kg and 400kg, then the average price last week was €2.34. If this same heifer was in the upper end of quality, the average increases to €2.63/kg.

Similarly, looking at the bulls, if we pick a Charolais of 300kg to 400kg the average price per kilo was €2.54, with a top-end one averaging €2.79/kg.

These tables are a great guide if you’re planning a mart visit with weanlings in the coming weeks.