Lighter weanlings top the trade at Cootehill Mart

Last Friday evening (October 30), Station Road Mart in Cootehill, Co. Cavan, held its weekly weanling sale.

The sale recorded a total of 130 head of weanlings last week. Sharing a similar story to marts around the country, a decline in stock numbers brought forward for sale has been noticed – with the mart recording entries of 300 head of weanlings no less than two weeks ago.

Speaking on the decrease in numbers, the mart’s manager, Jimmy O’Reilly, stated: “Some farmers are just being cautious as they just want the reassurance of being there when their stock are being sold.

We also have to factor in that we are in the month of November now and for three weeks in a row we recorded entries for weanlings in excess of 300 head, so the weanlings simply might not be there to sell.

“Overall, we have seen a very good throughput of cattle for the year to date, both at our Wednesday cattle sales and at our weanling sales held on Fridays.”

Commenting on last Friday’s trade, Jimmy stated: “The trade for weanlings was excellent in general; with the sales being online, the bidding was exceptionally good. A lot of cattle made well over €150-200/head on the market. We are finding that our buyers, to a certain extent, are embracing the online bidding, but naturally enough they would prefer to be around the ring.

“The bulk of our bull weanlings sold in excess of €2.60/kg, and the majority of heifers would have traded above €2.50/kg.”

As can be seen in the sample prices below, it was the more continental-bred Charolais and Limousin bull weanlings that were awarded the best prices per kilo. Bull weanlings traded at prices ranging from €3.10/kg back to €2.00/kg.

Heifer weanlings achieved prices from €1.95/kg to €3.52/kg, with Jimmy explaining:

“It was the lighter continental-type weanling heifers that achieved the top prices on the day.”