Last Tuesday (July 27) saw numbers of cattle slightly back on the previous week, but prices continue to rally upwards, according to Enniscorthy Mart manager Tommy Harrington.
Harrington noted that cull cow numbers are well back at marts across the board, and a lot of the good cows have “gone through the marts already” this year.
Commenting on the heifer and steer trade, he noted numbers appear to be tightening and said that store cattle are getting a bit more scarce.
Click on a thumbnail in the gallery (below) to open up a full-size image of some animals from Enniscorthy Mart; 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.
weighing 565kg made €1,450, or €2.57/kg
Harrington believes that suitable grass growing conditions means farmers aren’t under pressure to bring out cattle, and are happy to keep them on, considering stock on grass are – generally speaking – getting on well this year.
Commenting on demand, Harrington noted that it is strong across the board for all cattle, but in particular for good continental stores, which are up over €100 head or more in some cases.
Feedlot buyers are keen for all forward types of cattle, according to Harrington, who noted they are ideally seeking cattle over 500kg but are willing to buy lighter lots of cattle – in particular when Angus stock are involved.
Speculating on the cattle trade in the coming weeks, Harrington believes prices will hold firm.
He outlined that nice continental cattle from 360kg up “could make anything now if they turned out because they’re not there at the moment”.
Concluding, Harrington said: “I’d safely say if you had 380kg, you’re looking at €1,000 easily for nice, quality sorts of handy cattle like that.”