It was another strong sheep sale at Loughrea Mart on Thursday (November 26), with heavy lambs making up to €130/head.

There was a large number of heavy, butcher lambs (50kg+) brought forward for sale and prices, similar to what is being seen at other marts, exceeded the €120/head mark on nearly every occasion.

The sale started off a bit slow, but after the first few couples of pens, the sale took off, with those heavy lambs strongly contested among buyers.

In some instances, factory lambs in the 47-48kg bracket were fiercely contested for, with one particular pen of eight lambs weighing 47.5kg selling for a substantial €126/head.

Starting off with the butcher lambs, again, as mentioned already, the trade was flying for these lots. Prices ranged from €115/head up to €129/head; however, all lots bar one sold from €120/head up to a top price of €129/head.

There wasn’t as big a supply of factory-type lambs in comparison to butcher lambs. Although, this didn’t matter as the trade was still very good, with prices ranging from €113/head up to a top of €126/head.

The majority of the factory lambs on offer weighed from 44kg up to 48.5kg.

Again, not a huge amount of store lambs were on offer at Loughrea on Thursday but the trade for those that were on offer was still strong.

Forward store lambs regularly sold for in excess of €100/head and made up to €111/head. In general, lambs weighing 38.5kg up to 42kg made from €98/head up to €106/head.

Slightly lighter lambs in the 35-38kg bracket sold from €89/head up to €95/head. Two pens of long-keep stores weighing 27kg and 32kg sold for €67/head each.