Cattle numbers were reported to have increased at Ballinrobe Mart on Wednesday last, January 16. A good trade was reported – especially for the quality lots on offer.

Tom Maguire – the mart’s manager – said: “The trade has followed the pre-Christmas period, with the emphasis very much on quality.

“Anything ‘nice’ is making plenty and anything plain is a bad trade – the very same as before Christmas. We had 100 cattle here on Wednesday and that would be typical for this time of the year.

“There is a degree of uncertainty about the whole suckler and beef game. Having said that, quality cattle are still achieving high prices.”

Following the trend that is evident across the country, plainer cattle were a more difficult trade. Moving to the bullock trade, again it was the quality lots that were most in demand.

Tom highlighted that the dry cow trade is well back on last year’s prices – approximately €200/head.

“The best in the sale this week was a Charolais cross cow and she made €1.75/kg; this time last year they were making €2.00/kg freely,” Tom said.

A top price of €1,570 or €1.75/kg was paid for a Charolais cross cow weighing 895kg (pictured below).

In addition, sheep numbers were reported to have increased at the Mayo-based venue, while prices were said to have improved also.

“The sheep prices increased on Wednesday. There were a lot of customers around for lambs and – in some cases – the prices jumped by €10/head,” Tom explained.

More buyers were in the market for store lambs which sold for €82-121/head; ewe lambs sold for up to €188/head.

On the day, a number of fat ewes also went under the hammer and these lots made €76-112/head.