Pair of heavy bullocks make €5,000 and €4,800 at Tullamore Mart
GVM Tullamore Mart, Co. Offaly, hosted its weekly general cattle sale on Thursday (September 3), with approximately 600 cattle on offer.
Speaking to Agriland after the sale, auctioneer Gordon Cobbe said there was almost a full clearance of the cattle on offer with signs of more positive trade sentiment.
He said there were more heavy cattle on offer in the most recent sale and noted two stand-out bullocks that were sold on the day.
He said: "One bullock was six and the other bullock was seven years old.
"One of them, we got him onto the scales, he weighed 1,385kg and the other one wouldn't go onto the scales so was sold with no weight.
"One made €5,000 and the other one made €4,800."
One bullock was an Angus-cross and the other was a Limousin-cross.
He said: "The biggest stock bull I ever seen here was about 1,210kg.
"In my time, I never remember anything the size of them two bullocks anyway."
The two bullocks were purchased by a feedlot buyer and attracted plenty of interest from the farmers at the sale.
"It was like something out of Dublin Zoo when you stood beside them," Cobbe remarked.
"If you imagine, it would take two heavy, 700kg bullocks to match up to one of them."
Trade for other cattle in the sale
Cobbe said there was a selection of other heavy bullocks in the sale as well.
"There was a 750kg Belgian Blue bullock that made €3,040. There were another few Stabiliser-cross bullocks 730kg that made €2,820 and there was a 695kg Charolais bullock made €2,730."
Overall, the auctioneer said there was a good demand for the heavy cattle in the bullock ring.
Some of the other notable store bullock prices in the sale included:
- A 480kg Charolais bullock that made €2,240;
- A 475kg Limousin bullock that made €2,120;
- A 490kg Simmental bullock that made €2,040.
Looking at the average sale prices, Cobbe noted a slight improvement this week, "maybe around 5c/kg improvement, so a general upward trajectory".
"A lot of the store Angus and Herefords are probably still being bought around the €3.60-3.80/kg mark but better ones then are making up to €4.75/kg for the tops.
Cobbe also noted "a lot more buyers ringside" over the last two weeks.
"There's probably 2-3 times the buyers active at the sales now than a few weeks back.
"Some of the buyers are telling us factories are moving from 3- and 4-days kill to a 5-day kill.
"There's a few things happening that look like positive signals for the market," he said.
