Granard Mart in Co. Longford hosted its weekly general cattle sale on Wednesday, November 27, with approximately 150 bullocks, 90 heifers and 70 cows on offer in the sale.
Speaking to Agriland after the sale, Granard Mart manager Jodie Reilly said there was near a 100% clearance in the sale, with continued strong demand from all key customers.
“Export customers and factories are particularly strong, with factories very keen for both fit cattle and forward cattle for further feeding.
Sample cow prices from the sale:
“There’s shocking strong demand from farmers for those store type cattle and even down to the lesser grade cattle, there’s great confidence in the job at the moment,” he said.
The mart manager expects cattle numbers in the sale will start to get tighter from the next week on to Christmas as “a lot of cattle have gone into sheds so we won’t see as many numbers coming out for a few weeks again.”
Sample bullock prices from the sale at Granard Mart:
He said the numbers of cattle on offer at the mart into the final four months of the year “have held very well to date” and attributed this to the settled weather.
“The farmers were coming with a constant flow of cattle instead of a big glut of cattle in October.
“There were no farmers under that much pressure at any stage to move on cattle and whatever excess cattle farmers have now, they’re going to move them on because from the smaller weanlings to the heavier cattle, farmers are getting out well,” he added.
The mart manager says that prices for cattle over 500kg “could be up €200/head in cases” from the same time of last year.