It was all hands on deck at Skibbereen Mart on Friday last where the west Cork venue had one of its biggest sales in the last two decades, with 1,030 cattle going through the ring.
Of those, 631 were weanlings with 400 weanling bulls on offer.
Trade held relatively firm and while exporters were present, they certainly didn’t have things their own way, with plenty of farmer buyers both ringside and online and they made their presence felt when it came to bidding.
Following the sale, manager Keith Mullaney said: “Prices held away fine. They were probably a bit dearer a month a go, but there’s a lot more of weanlings around now.
“Anything saleable was making plenty, with €4.80/kg to €5.70/kg going for the better-quality lots.
“It was the first busy day where I saw farmers competing hard. They were the main buyers for heifers and I’d say at least half the bulls went to farmers too.
“The ones weighing from 350kg to 420kg were ideal weights for farmers and some buyers averaged over €5/kg for what they bought. One exporter had 45 bulls out of it at a similar average price.
“Farmers were really competing with exporters there. A good few bull finishers picked up about 20 weanlings and that kept a good floor under things for the heavier bulls.
Heavier animals
“For the heifer weanlings then, those nice red Limousins and Charolais were touching €5/kg and for the really flashy ones up to €5.50/kg was available.
“The best price in it was three pedigree Limousin heifers weighing 295kg that made €2,200 and we saw €5.90/kg paid on the store ring for a blue heifer that is likely to go for breeding.
“It was one of the biggest sales here in Skibbereen in about 20 years and we had a serious clearance rate for that number of stock with 97% sold.
“You’d be thinking numbers are going to dip a bit – I think another two weeks and you’ll see them fall off and a lot of the weanlings are gone through already.
“Now, I hope I’m wrong, but we have seen a good few sold compared to this time last year.
Sales
“We had very big bullock sales over the last month, but I think they’ll start tightening up in marts over the next few weeks.
“Numbers weren’t long turning around after the quiet spell due to the drought.
“We’ll see cow numbers go up though. We had 100 cows on Friday.
“I thought there’d be more, but the bad weather over the weekend might see more of them washed out, but there is good demand for them.”
