Maura Quigley reported a good trade overall at Wednesday’s sheep sale (February 10) at Roscommon Mart.
A strong entry for the time of year (just over 400) was seen, with numbers up over 150 head on this time last year, according to Maura.
The trade across the board was strong, with a good mix of hoggets, cull ewes, in-lamb ewes and ewes with lambs at foot on offer.
Also Read: ‘Trade was improved in cases but steady in general; supplies are tightening though’Giving her thoughts on the trade, Maura told AgriLand: “The sale on Wednesday went well. We had a mixture of everything and we had just over a 98% clearance rate.
“All the hoggets and in-lamb ewes were sold, while only four stags and one pen of ewes and lambs at foot didn’t find a new home.
Looking at the trade, the heavy hoggets were up slightly from the previous week. The tops of the heavy hoggets was €151/head for a pen weighing 54kg.
“Any well-fleshed hoggets weighing upwards of 48kg sold from €136/head up to €154/head. The stores were also a good trade, I saw one pen of 40kg hoggets make up to €121/head. The stores generally made from €80/head up to €120/head.
“Hoggets weighing 44-46kg generally made from €125/head mark up to €135/head. Overall, there was a good demand for all types of hoggets.
“The cull ewes were a similar trade to last week. The tops of the heavy culls made up to €134/head. Lighter store ewe prices started from €65/head.
“The in-lamb ewes made from €126/head up to €200/head and all were sold on the day. Ewes with lambs at foot were in good demand. Ewes with singles made up to €250/unit, while ewes with doubles sold up to €295/unit.
“Week-on-week we are seeing an increase in the number of in-lamb ewes and ewes with lambs at foot on offer and they are both being met with a good demand.
“Overall, numbers are well up on this time last year. This time last year we had about 250 sheep in the yard, while on Wednesday we had just over 400.”