The cull ewe trade remains on fire, with a number of marts over the past week reporting prices in excess of €200/head once again.
At Ballyjamesduff Mart on Wednesday evening (July 14), the mart’s manager John Tevlin reported a top price of €222/head for a 127kg cull ewe (pictured above).
Speaking to Agriland about the trade on Wednesday, John said: “We saw a very good trade all-round.
“Lambs were in good demand, with factory agents anxious to get a hold of lambs for the Eid al-Adha festival coming up.
“As well as that, there is strong farmer interest for store lambs – with numbers likely to increase over the coming weeks.
“Furthermore, we saw a very nice pen of ewe lambs in excess of 50kg making €167/head – so there is good demand coming from farmers there as well.”
Sample lamb prices:
- Five at 42.1kg sold for €111/head;
- Three at 46kg sold for €129/head;
- Two at 47kg sold for €119/head;
- 18 at 56.4kg sold for €132/head;
- Six at 46.4kg sold for €128/head;
- Three at 63.3kg sold for €167/head (ewe lambs);
- Four at 58.3kg sold for €166/head (ewe lambs).
“The cull ewe trade remains very strong, with a top price of €222 seen for a 127kg ewe. Similar to the lambs, the ewes are in very strong demand for all types,” John added.
“Next week we are looking forward to our special show and sale of breeding sheep, which will take place along with our weekly sale of lambs and cull ewes – with the sale kicking off at the usual time of 5:00p.m,” he concluded.
Looking at the sheep trade in Northern Ireland, Agriland UK’s latest ‘Northern sheep trade’ article showed that prices up North have strengthened like the Republic of Ireland, with the trade also driven by the upcoming Eid al-Adha festival: read more here.