On Wednesday, December 16, Station Road Mart in Cootehill, Co. Cavan, held its final cattle sale of 2020. In total, there were over 300 head of cattle on offer consisting of bullocks, heifers and dry cows.
To get an insight into what the trade was like and how the mart performed over the final months of 2020, AgriLand spoke with the mart’s manager, Jimmy O’Reilly. Speaking on the concluding sale, he stated:
“The trade was strong and we had great numbers for the time of year. There were 90 bullocks in total with the lighter store types really commanding a good trade.
“The quality stores weighing up to 450kg were selling from €2.30/kg up to highs of €2.70/kg. Heavier continental stores were achieving €2.30/kg.
Hereford-bred store bullocks were certainly in demand too as they were averaging at €2.00/kg.
“Looking at the sale of heifers, a highlight price achieved was for a Blonde d’Aquitaine heifer weighing 395kg that sold for €1,160 or €2.93/kg.
“The tops of the lighter continental store heifers [under 430kg] were making from €2.30/kg up to €2.50/kg – with more traditional breeds selling from €2.10/kg back to €1.70/kg. Heavier continental beef heifers were sold at €2.01/kg up to €2.07/kg.
“In the dry cow ring, the more forward beef cows were trading from €1.70-2.11/kg. A stand-out price recorded for a heavy Friesian cow was €1.42/kg.”
Reflecting back on 2020 trade
It has been a busy year for the mart with the introduction of online trading and the restrictions implemented – although Jimmy could not fault the trade for quality cattle this year.
He said: “We were very happy with our sales for the back end of the year. We had a great show of cattle at our weekly cattle sales on Wednesday and our weanling sales on a Friday.
There was plenty of optimism in the store cattle trade, farmers who killed cattle were not afraid of returning to the ring and purchasing more cattle. The stores were definitely up €120/head on last year.
“In the weanling sale we had our seasonal buyers return this year which was good to see. We had a good mix of exporters and farmers purchasing weanlings and the trade never slipped really.
“The weanling heifer was surprisingly strong in the past few months compared to other years – the weanling bulls were also strong but they always command a good trade.
“In general, I’d easily say that the weanlings were up €100/head on last year.”