Kilcullen Mart in Co. Kildare hosted its weekly general cattle sale on Wednesday, February 7, with over 350 head of cattle on offer.
Commenting on the trade, auctioneer John Osborne said: “There was a good selling trade, with virtually a full clearance of the cattle on offer”.
“The lighter type cattle were in good demand, with a particular interest from buyers for out-wintered cattle.
“There was a pen of black angus calves, all out-lyers, and they were getting prices from €3.50-3.60/kg, but they were light weights at around 260-280kg.
“There was a great trade for the stronger cattle too. There were bullocks in the sale with six or seven moves on them, all over-age, non-Quality Assured (QA), and nothing going for them in that regard – but they were real good sorts of cattle, weighing round the 800kg mark and getting into €2,300.”
The auctioneer said that many farmers with heavy, forward-type store cattle that might be overage or out of spec, are taking their cattle out to the mart and “are getting on every bit as good or better” with the prices they are getting.
He added that some customers have already started buying cattle for grass at the Co. Kildare mart.
“They are buying grass cattle seriously well considering it’s still so early. We had customers at Kilcullen that bought cattle yesterday to go straight to land.
“There was a real flashy 315kg bullock with four moves that came into €1,300, which was a super price and shows the buying power farmers have coming back from selling their heavier cattle.
“I was talking to farmers that killed cattle with carcass weights over 530kg, and said they got near the €3,000 mark for heavy cattle; so there is a good price at the other end if you have the right thing coming through.”
Kilcullen Mart is set to host a show and sale of weanlings and dry cows on Wednesday, February 28, and a show and sale of heifers and bullocks on Wednesday, March 6.
There will also be a small selection of suckler cows in the sale on Wednesday, February 14.
The auctioneer noticed he has seen a lot of farmers selling suckler cows over the past year, and said that the strong cow trade is adding to this.
“Farmers are getting into €2,000 now for big, heavy cows, and while some farmers are throwing it back the other way for something in-calf, others are slower to replace their cows.
“It has been a few relatively good weeks for the cattle trade, the factories tapped it a bit last week but it looks like the buyers are remaining as positive and strong as ever,” Osbourne said.