Roscommon Mart held its weekly sale of sheep on Wednesday, February 23, which saw a good trade across the board.
The standout trade on the day however was that of cull ewes, which saw prices reach €170/head.
This signifies a trend with for cull ewes at the moment, as they were met with good demand at other marts earlier in the week too.
To give a rundown of the trade on the day at Roscommon Mart, Agriland spoke to the mart’s manager, Maura Quigley, to gain some more insight.
Maura said: “We had a good-sized sale of 450 sheep on Wednesday here at Roscommon Mart, which was up about 150 head on the previous week.
“Looking at the trade for hoggets, it was similar to the previous week, with prices reaching €156/head for 56.8kg hoggets.
“Many of those fleshed hoggets over 48kg sold from €148/head, up to €155/head. We didn’t see that many stores on Wednesday, with any that was on offer weighing 39kg and above.
“In general, prices for these stores ranged from €115/head up to close to the €130/head mark for 41-42kg lots,” Maura continued.
“The cull ewe trade is going well. We had 85 lots on offer on Wednesday, with prices generally ranging from €120/head up to €160/head – with the top price being €170/head.
“Moving on, we had 20 lots of ewes with lambs at foot. Again, these are being met with a good demand. Ewes with a single lamb at foot made up to €265/unit.
“Ewes with twins made up to a top price of €315/unit. Lastly, in-lamb ewes sold up to a high of €180/head,” Maura added.