Agriland made the trip to Ballinasloe Mart on Thursday (November 3) to check in on the mart’s sheep sale.
The sale saw eight rows of lambs on offer and four rows of a mix of cull ewes and breeding ewes.
The focal point of the sale was the lambs, which was dominated by store lambs, most of which were ewes.
Speaking to some farmers at the sale, the week before saw an even larger entry of lambs compared to this Thursday’s sale and the trade seemed to be improved because of the smaller entry.
The sale, as said, was dominated by store lambs, with the majority of these consisting of ewe lambs drawing considerable interest. This was especially so in the case of nice-quality Suffolk ewe lambs in the 35-38kg weight bracket.
Heavy lambs were in short supply which is the case at many marts at present, and prices generally didn’t exceed €140/head for these fleshed types.
In general, prices for 47-50kg lambs ranged from €126/head up to €138/head.
Lambs in the 44-46kg weight bracket traded from €120/head up to €126/head in the main.
Whereas 38-43kg lambs sold from just over €90/head up to highs of €116-118/head, with a few pens of 35kg and 37kg Suffolk ewe lambs selling in excess of €110/head up to €118/head.
Light stores, in the 32kg to 37kg weight bracket, in the main, moved in price from €68-70/head up to €90-95/head.
