As weanling sales kick into a higher gear, so too it appears have exporters.

A few key exporters are now prevalent around weanling rings and are still paying top dollar for the quality and type of weanling that their market demands.

While they may not be popular for farmer buyers looking to source bull weanlings for finishing as bull beef or higher-end bullocks, they are a welcome addition to suckler farmers.

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While prices are still solid, there has been an obvious easing of prices from where we saw them for the same period last year.

The ever-popular 300kg to 400kg weanling that exporters love saw average prices this week of €5.04/kg, while the same weanling last year was €5.55/kg. On a 370kg bull, it’s a hit of €188.70.

For a farmer in the east or south that has been badly hit by drought and is facing increased costs, it’s another blow when they’re down.

The gap is more significant when you creep up in the top third of weanlings, which are what these exporters are most active for.

This week, these top third of weanlings traded at €5.88/kg or €2,175.60 for that 370kg bull. Last year, the same bull weanling at the same weight was achieving a price of €2,379.10, a €203.50/head difference.

The likelihood is that weanling and cattle prices of 2025 will take a long time to be repeated and inflation will have eaten into much of that price by the time it comes around.

Balla Mart manager Michael Nolan was quick to praise farmers for the quality of calves being presented at the mart’s opening weanling sale on Tuesday evening last.

“There are exceptional calves and exceptional weights coming into the mart.

“Quality is outstanding at the moment for autumn-born calves. Anywhere from €5 to €6/kg is available for export-quality weanlings, even with those heavier calves. The markets seem to have opened up again and they [exporters] are battling it out for that good quality calf,” he said.

“Farmer buyers are present too for that slightly plainer calf, but only for those lots with weight behind them. It will be later into the season before these buyers become more active when they off load heavier cattle.”

Bullocks and heifers

Slight decreases were seen in the bullock ring this week for heavier-type bullocks suitable for immediate slaughter or further feeding amid a shakier atmosphere among factory prices.

Heifers appear less affected, going by MartBids analysis, with heifers over 600kg 10c/kg ahead of their male counterparts after recording a 2c/kg lift.

Both bullocks and heifers across all weights of average quality are trading between €3.56/kg and €3.69/kg over the last week, with the only exception being light bullocks weighing 350kg to 400kg trading at €3.81/kg.

Top-end cull cows surprisingly recorded a 19c/kg lift over the last week, leaving them trading at €3.57/kg, with average and the bottom third of cows quality wise at €2.82/kg and €2.01/kg respectively.