Athenry Mart held its weekly sale of sheep on Monday last (November 2), which saw a “surprisingly” small entry of sheep being presented for sale.
The majority of the sheep on offer consisted of butcher and factory-finished lambs, with a small portion of the sale made up of store lambs and cast ewes.
AgriLand tuned into the online selling trading platform MartEye to see what the trade was like on the day.
Also Read: 'The trade for butcher lambs was on fire' - Athenry's Brian HoganThe standout trade was for butcher lambs which regularly sold for in excess of €120/head. The top price on the day went to a pen of sharp-looking Suffolk lambs that sold for €126/head.
Prices of between €121/head and €124/head were regularly seen for lambs weighing in excess of 50kg, with slightly lighter lambs weighing 48-49kg making from €114/head up to €120/head.
Sample butcher lamb prices:
- 10 lambs weighing 51kg sold for €122/head;
- Eight ram lambs weighing 59.5kg sold for €121/head;
- Five lambs weighing 49kg sold for €118/head;
- 20 lambs weighing 55.5kg sold for €124/head;
- 22 lambs weighing 50kg sold for €123/head;
- 19 lambs weighing 52.5kg sold for €123/head;
- 10 lambs weighing 48kg sold for €115/head.
Factory-fit lambs were also in high demand and sold strongly, with prices ranging from €106/head up to €115/head for lambs weighing between 43kg and 47kg.
Sample finished lamb prices:
- Seven lambs weighing 43.5kg sold for €106/head;
- 16 lambs weighing 47kg sold for €113/head;
- Seven lambs weighing 46.5kg sold for €115/head;
- Seven lambs weighing 43kg sold for €110/head.
The rest of the sale, as mentioned above, consisted of store lambs and cull ewes. The couple of pens of stores that were on offer were a good trade.
Those forward-type lambs, weighing above 39kg, made anywhere from €95-97/head, while slightly lighter stores, in the 34-37kg weight bracket, sold from €86/head up to €93/head.
Sample store lamb prices:
- Five lambs weighing 39.5kg sold for €97/head;
- 19 lambs weighing 37.5kg sold for €95/head;
- Seven lambs weighing 34kg sold for €93/head;
- 27 lambs weighing 36kg sold for €86/head;
- 11 lambs weighing 35kg sold for €94/head;
- Eight lambs weighing 35kg sold for €95/head.
Lastly, a small selection of feeding and heavy ewes were on offer at Athenry on Monday. Feeding ewes generally made from €77/head up to €83/head, while well-fleshed, heavy ewes traded from €111/head up to a tops of €127/head.