A ferocious appetite was seen at Athenry Mart this morning (March 15) for hoggets, with a top price of €178/head seen for a pen of 51kg hoggets.

It wasn’t the only pen of hoggets to breach the €170/head mark on the day, with other 50kg plus lots selling from €170/head up to €177/head.

Overall, those 50kg hoggets ranged from €157/head up to €178/head, with the majority selling from €162/head and upwards.

Looking further down the weights, 46-49kg hoggets traded very strongly, with prices for these lots ranging from €149/head up to €160/head, with one exceptional pen of 46kg hoggets selling to €168/head or €3.65/kg.

There was quite a bit of variation in prices paid out for 44-45kg hoggets, with prices ranging from €131/head up to €160/head. However, those 45kg hoggets generally sold upwards of €140/head.

Lighter store hoggets in the 40-43kg weight bracket sold from €121/head up to €146/head.

Similar to the hoggets, a cracking trade was seen for cull ewes, with heavy well-fleshed ewes selling to a high of €164/head for 104kg.

Overall, those heavy ewes ranged in prices from €135/head up to €157/head. Light store cull ewes sold back to €44/head for horned ewes.

Hogget prices were also on the rise at Ennis Mart today (March 15), with a top price of €181/head being paid out for a pen of 55kg hoggets.

Some other standout prices of €151/head (or €3.59/kg) for 42kg and €170/head (€3.58/kg) for 47.5kg hoggets was seen.

Martin McNamara, the mart’s manager, reported a smaller sale of sheep (200 head) with quality among the hoggets more variable than previous weeks.

However, despite this, “yet again, new headlines were hit in respect of hogget prices”, he said. Furthermore, the high prices of hoggets had a knock-on effect on the cull ewes and these sold to a high €146/head.