Farmers at Tuam Mart on Tuesday (December 7) really dug their heels on price for lambs, with factory agents having to play ball to secure lambs.
Despite Storm Barra making its way on the evening, farmers remained bullish and stood firm on their asking price throughout the sale – which led to a lively trade and atmosphere at Tuam, with prices reflecting what has been seen at marts across the country this week.
There was a big selection of finished lambs at the Galway-based mart, which drew plenty of attention and saw prices reach a high of €170/head.
Store lambs were in less supply but held a solid trade nonetheless.
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.
From digging their heels in, farmers got what they wanted in many cases, with many of those 50kg plus moving at prices ranging from €156/head up to €168/head – with prices occasionally hitting as high as €170/head, as mentioned.
Lesser-quality lambs, ram lambs or lambs lacking flesh in the same weight bracket generally sold below this range and traded from €145/head up to €155/head, but this was only the case for a few pens.
Moving down in the weights, 44-49kg lambs sold from €140/head up to a high of €152/head.
Factory agents weren’t afraid to dive further down for lambs in the 41-43kg weight category for lambs with good flesh cover.
Prices for lambs in the 40-43kg weight bracket ranged from €131/head up to €139/head.
Lighter stores in the 35-39kg bracket sold from €115/head up to €122/head, with the lightest stores on offer consisting of 30kg hill-bred lambs that sold for €70/head.
Furthermore, a solid entry of cull ewes were on offer at Tuam Mart on Tuesday, and exchanged hands from a base of around €70/head, up to a high of €170/head for well-fleshed ewes weighing 100kg.