Agriland made the trip out west this week to Roscommon Mart, to check in and see what the trade was like at the mart’s weekly sheep sale on Wednesday (May 5).

On the day, numbers were back on the previous few weeks, with the poor weather – according to the mart’s manager Maura Quigley – a contributing factor to the fewer spring lambs on offer.

Despite this, spring lambs made up the bulk of the sale, followed by cull ewes, 10 lots of ewes with lambs, and a handful of hoggets were also on offer.

Prices were well maintained on last week for spring lambs and the few hoggets on offer, while cull ewes saw a lift in prices.

Auctioneer Hugh Mulvihill running the show at Roscommon Mart on Wednesday (May 5)

Spring lambs

Looking at the spring lamb trade first, lighter lambs were the stronger trade on the day, with prices for 42-44kg lambs nearly making as much as 46-49kg lambs.

Lambs weighing over 45kg generally sold from €154/head up to a tops of €160/head.

While 40-44kg lambs traded from €130/head, up to tops of €156/head. Although the majority moved at prices above €148/head.

The lightest lambs on offer were 38.57kg and sold for €134/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.

Hoggets

As already mentioned, hogget numbers were very small at Roscommon Mart on Wednesday.

Prices for those finished hoggets ranged from €158/head, up to a top price of €170/head for two ewe hoggets.

Of the few store-type hoggets on offer, these sold back to €108/head and sold up to €132/head.

Cull ewes

An improved trade from last seen for cull ewes, with a good demand overall for all types of ewes on offer.

The top price on the day was €160/head for a pen of four heavy, well-fleshed ewes.

The general run of prices for those heavy ewes ranged from €135/head, up to €150/head, with only two other lots exceeding this range.

Lighter ewes also traded strongly and made from €116/head, up to a high of €130/head.

Ewes with lambs at foot

Similar to other marts, Roscommon Mart continues to see a good trade for ewes with lambs.

Ewes with single lambs at foot traded from €190/unit up to €220/unit, while ewes with twin lambs at foot sold from €255/unit up to a high of €285/unit.