Yesterday (Saturday, November 6), Agriland made the trip to Mountbellew Mart to check in on its weekly sale of sheep.

On the day, a big showing of store and ewe lambs were seen, with demand strong across the board, in general, for all types of lambs.

With factory prices for lambs increasing week-on-week the last number of weeks, the trade for finished lambs showed no signs of slowing up, with factory agents extremely keen for lambs possessing any decent level of cover of flesh – with supplies of finished lambs not in abundance.

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.

  • This pen of ewe lambs weighing 46.1kg sold for €136/head
  • This pen of 41.5kg lambs sold for €124/head
  • This pen of stores weighing 29.2kg sold for €98/head
  • This pen of 39.8kg ewe lambs sold for €120/head
  • Another pen of ewe lambs, this time weighing 40kg, sold for €130/head
  • These two ram lambs weighing 62.5kg sold for €164/head
  • This pen of fleshed 52.5kg lambs sold for €152/head
  • This even pen of 59.5kg ewe lambs sold for €164/head
  • This lot of ewe lambs weighing 37.4kg sold for €135
  • This pen of light 28kg stores sold for €92/head
  • This lot of 50kg lambs sold for €150/head
  • This pen of light ewe lambs weighing 31.9kg sold for €95/head
  • This pen of 30kg wether lambs sold for €80/head
  • This pen of ewe lambs weighing 31kg were snapped up at €80/head
  • This pen of 40.3kg lambs sold for €130/head

Looking at the lamb trade in more detail, which saw 80 pens on offer in total, fleshed lambs weighing 50kg plus generally made from €147/head up to €160/head with one pen of 62kg lambs making a high of €164/head.

Ewe lambs of similar weight, that were attracting the interest of farmers, traded from €145/head and sold up to a tops of €164/head for a fine pen of ewe lambs weighing 59.5kg.

Moving down in the weights, factory-type lambs in the 44-49kg weight bracket sold from €136/head up to €147/head.

Again, factory agents competed with farmers for forward store lambs with any decent cover of flesh, with 39-43kg lambs generally selling from €121-133/head.

Lambs in the same weight category but lacking flesh sold back to €109/head.

The store lamb trade has been very strong in recent weeks and many mart managers have commented on the strong demand for light, long keep stores and at Mountbellew on Saturday, the same could be seen.

One standout price was seen for a pen of 24 store lambs weighing 29.2kg that sold for €98/head or €3.35/kg.

In general, prices for stores in the 34-38kg weight bracket ranged from €91/head up to €110/head.

26-33kg lambs traded from €60/head up to as high as €100/head.

These three ewe lambs (with the red mark) weighing 47.5kg sold for €163/head

Moving back to the trade for ewe lambs, demand was strong across the board for ewe lambs of all weights, from just over 30kg up to 60kg.

Ewe lambs in the 30-35kg weight bracket made from €80/head for Blackface mountain lambs up to €110/head for Suffolk-cross lambs.

36-39kg ewe lambs made from €109/head up to €135/head, with 40kg plus ewe lambs making from €130/head up to €160/head.

Just over 20 lots of cull ewes were also on offer at Mountbellew yesterday, which saw prices range from €60/head up to a top of €156/head.

MOUNTBELLEW MART PICS AND PRICES