Pics from the mart: Hoggets sell up to €170/head at Tuam Mart

A strong trade was seen at Tuam Mart on Tuesday evening (March 2) for finished and forward store hoggets.

Both butchers and factory agents were very active at the sale, with a couple of those 50kg plus hoggets being pushed over the €160/head mark and up close to €170/head on a couple of occasions, while those 48-49kg lots were also fought hard for and made over €155/head in cases.

There was a particularly strong trade for hoggets in the 42-47kg weight bracket, with prices pushing over €3.00/kg in many cases.

Looking at the trade in more detail, those heavy hoggets upwards of 50kg generally sold from €152/head up to a tops of €169/head. One 66kg hogget sold to €170/head.

Sample hogget prices:

21 at 46kg sold for €149/head or €3.23/kg;
12 at 45kg sold for €148/head or €3.28/kg;
Six at 43.5kg sold for €140/head or €3.21/kg;
23 at 42.5kg sold for €136/head or €3.20/kg;
Four at 52kg sold for €157/kg or €3.01/kg;
Nine at 44kg sold for €144/head or €3.27/kg;
Two at 49kg sold for €146/head or €2.97/kg;
13 at 35.5kg sold for €104/head or €2.92/kg;
Eight at 48.7kg sold for €141/head or €2.89/kg;
11 at 33kg sold for €84/head or €2.54/kg;
20 at 47kg sold for €136/head or €2.89/kg.

Going down in the weights, 47-49kg hoggets sold very strongly, with prices for these lots ranging from €136/head up to €164/head for better-quality lots.

Similarly, strong prices were recorded for 44-46kg hoggets, with the general run of prices going from €136/head up to €151/head.

Then your 40-43kg hoggets traded from €128/head up to €140/kg. A good few light pens of hoggets under 40kg were on offer on Tuesday. Prices for those types (32-39kg) ranged from €80/head up to €122/head.

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.

: These 16 hoggets at 49.5kg sold for €164/head

: These 10 ewe lambs at 47.2kg sold for €147/head

: This sharp-looking pen of ewe lambs weighing 55.5kg sold for €169/head

: Another pen of heavy hoggets (53.5kg) sold for €169/head

: These 56.5kg hoggets went under the hammer at €167/head

: These 40.8kg stores exchanged hands at €128/head

: This pen of 47.5kg hoggets were snapped up at €149/head

: The hammer dropped on these 47kg hoggets at €151/head

: 10 at 47.1kg sold for €150/head

: At 53.5kg these four sold at €166/head

: These 49.5kg hoggets exchanged hands at €157/head

: Another sharp-looking pen of Suffolk hoggets at 46kg sold for €142/head

Cull ewes

Quality was lacking in the cull ewe section at Tuam on Tuesday evening. The majority of the ewes on offer were store types, with only a handful of heavy ewes on offer.

The general run of prices for those light cast ewes ranged from €45/head up to €80/head. Ewes in the 80-90kg weight bracket sold from €90/head up to €115/head. While the few heavy ewes, in excess of 90kg that were presented for sale made up to €130/head.

Those heavy well-fleshed ewes seem to have dried up the last week or two at Tuam, with many farmers having moved on what ewes scanned empty at this stage.