Martin McNamara of Ennis Mart reported another very strong sale of sheep at Monday’s sale (March 8).

Similar to the previous week, around 300 sheep were on offer, with a stronger entry of cull ewes on offer in comparison to the previous week.

Martin said that the trade continues to go from strength-to-strength, especially for the good-quality hoggets. Similar to last week’s sale, hoggets breached the €3.00/kg mark on numerous occasions.

The top price for those finished hoggets was €168/head (or €3.05/kg) for a pen of quality hoggets weighing 55kg. That top price was closely followed by another pen of 52.5kg hoggets that sold for €167/head.

Many of those really good-quality 50kg plus hoggets sold over €160/head. There were very store-type hoggets on offer on Monday.

Lastly, a “cracking trade” was seen for cull ewes, with heavy culls making up to €137/head, while stores sold back to €75/head.