The trade at sheep marts this past week, the first week in 2022, has followed the same trend seen prior to marts closing for the Christmas break.
Lamb prices in many cases have held firm across the board, while cull ewe prices have seen a lift in cases at sheep marts.
Most marts are expected to be back as normal next week, but a few marts opted to get the ball rolling this past week.
Looking at the trade, lambs/hoggets over 50kg continue to trade from a base of €155/head up to €167/head in general, with some lambs/hoggets pushing returns slightly above this level.
Lambs/hoggets in the 44-49kg weight bracket have been trading from €135-140/head up to €150-155/head.
The trade for stores is holding to the same level as before the Christmas break.
In general, forward stores continue to trade from €130/head up to €140/head – with slightly lesser quality lambs/hoggets selling back to €120/head.
In general, stores over the 20kg mark are starting at a base of over €50/head for hill-bred lambs and moving up to high of €115-120/head for better-quality, lowland-bred lambs.
Moving on to the cull ewe trade, well-fleshed heavy ewes continue to sell from a wide range of €140/head up to €170/head in general, with some exceptional ewes over 100kg continuing to buck this trend and selling to over €190/head.
Furthermore, prices for store ewes range from €40-50/head up to €110-135/head for forward feeding ewes.
Stay tuned to Agriland for a round up on the trade for the first in-lamb ewe sales of 2022.