On Tuesday, March 1, Agriland made the trip down to Blessington Mart in Co. Wicklow for its weekly sheep sale, which saw prices for cull ewes reach €200/head.
Overall, the trade for cull ewes outshone the rest of what was on offer on the day. It was up €8-10/head on the previous week according to the mart’s manager, John Doyle, who also noted that the numbers entered to the sale were down on last week.
The hogget trade wasn’t quite as lively as the cull ewe trade, but it was still steady on what was seen the week before.
Click on a thumbnail in the gallery (below) to open up a full-size image; once opened you can scroll sideways to see the next picture. Refer to each caption to see details of each lot, including the hammer price.
Light store ewes with little flesh cover sold generally from €70/head up to €98/head. Ewes in the 70-80kg weight bracket traded from just under €100 and sold up to €140 in general – with the exception of two pens of 76kg and 77.5kg ewes that sold for €160/head and €154/head, respectively.
Ewes weighing 80-85kg sold for €125-160/head, with ewes over 85kg selling for €140/head up to €178/head. Two brutes of ewes averaging 114kg topped the sale at €200 a piece.
The hogget trade wasn’t firing like the cull ewe trade was. However, there was no shortage of buyers both ringside and online for finished and store types – and demand was still strong for whatever hoggets did come through the ring.
The trade for hoggets could be described as steady across the board.
Looking at those butcher-type hoggets, there weren’t many in supply. However, the ones that sold made from €152-156/head.
Factory hoggets traded from €145/head up to €152/head and forward stores sold from €125/head up to €142/head, with longer keep stores selling anywhere from €90/head up to €120-125/head.