There was a large sale of cattle at Carnew Mart’s weekly general cattle sale on Saturday (August 6) with over 1,200 head of stock on offer.

Commenting on the trade, Carnew Mart’s yard manager Eugene Clune said: “While heavier cattle had been a powerful trade, Saturday’s sale saw strong increases in price/kg for big, heavy cattle, with up on €3.11-3.12/kg being secured.

“Beef cattle have blasted past €3/kg again, while weanlings hit €4.20/kg and sucklers sold to to €2,660.”

Clune said a mix of factory agents, wholesalers and northern customers are all competing for the heavy forward and finished cattle, while farmer buyers are on hand to buy all types of lighter stores.

Some of the top prices from the bullock sale:

  • 778kg Belgian Blue: €2,300 or €2.96/kg;
  • 750kg Charolais: €2,280 or €3.04/kg;
  • 703kg Limousin: €2,170 or €3.09/kg;
  • 712kg Charolais: €2,150 or €3.02/kg;
  • 564kg Belgian Blue: €1,780 or €3.16/kg;
  • 504kg Belgian Blue: €1,670 or €3.13/kg;
  • 492kg Blonde D’Aquitaine: €1,500 or €3.05/kg.

He noted the level of demand from buyers in other parts of the country at the Carnew sale was high, also saying “we sold cattle on Saturday to buyers from as far away as Donegal and Antrim and down as far as Cork”.

Some of the top prices from the heifer sale:

  • 764kg Charolais: €2210 €2.89/kg;
  • 666kg Limousin: €2000 or €3/kg;
  • 644kg Parthenaise: €1940 or €3.01;
  • 490kg Belgian Blue: €1540 or €3.14;
  • 514kg Belgian Blue: €1600 or €3.11;
  • 528kg Charolais: €1630 or €3.08;
  • 352kg Belgian Blue: €1400 or €3.97.

The mart hosted an E and U-grade special sale on Saturday with the beef sale, which featured almost 170 bull weanlings. Clune explained that bulls in the sale “met a savage trade”, with strong demand from exporters both ringside and online.

“There’s a lot of the fancy bulls going for shipping and there’s also a lot of the plainer-type bulls going for shipping at very good money. Exporters and specialist feeders are extremely active for bulls of all types,” he said.

Some of the top prices from the bull sale:

  • 616kg Limousin €1,880 or €3.05/kg;
  • 456kg Belgian Blue €1,660 or €3.64/kg;
  • 382kg Belgian Blue €1,600 or €4.19/kg;
  • 334kg Belgian Blue €1,270 or €3.80/kg.

“An awful lot of cattle are getting into €3/kg that were at €2/kg not that long ago,” Clune continued.

“Numbers will build from now until November 15 or 20. We will be starting our weanling sales in mid September and that will see a lot of cattle coming out and we will have a lot of store cattle coming through as well.”

Commenting on the suckler trade, Clune noted that suckler cows with calves at foot sold to €2,660 while in-calf cows sold to €2,200.