Castleisland Mart held its weekly calf sale on Monday (June 19) with a large entry of calves on offer at the Co. Kerry-based mart.
The trade for calves has been strong throughout the season so far, but numbers are starting to decrease as the calving on the majority of farms is long over.
The Kingdom-based mart had a large showing of both reared and shipping-type calves – with both these groups in demand from their prospective buyers.
To get some insight into the trade on Monday, Agriland spoke with Adam Coughlan from the mart.
Castleisland Mart
Adam said that there was a large number of reared, three/four-month-old calves on offer at Monday’s sale.
The majority of these calves being Angus or Hereford calves, with these calves being in strong demand among farmer buyers at the mart.
As grass growth is picking up again, demand was high for the stronger-type calves that were ready to head to grass.
Coughlan said that the bull calves were selling up to €500, while the heifers were making prices up to €400 and €450.
There was also a number of runner-type continental calves from suckler cows that were making up to €700. These calves weighed around 160-170kg.
Shipping calves
Over half of the calves on offer at Castleisland Mart went for shipping, according to Coughlan.
He said that buyers were quite anxious for calves as the shipping season approaches the end of season for 2023 and numbers start to tighten.
This, according to Coughlan, resulted in an improvement in the trade for the shipping calves.
The Angus-type shipping calves achieved prices of €200-220, while Friesian-type calves were in short supply with prices being achieved of up to €100-120.
Overall, a good trade for calves remains, with farmers looking for the reared calved and exporters keen to purchase calves ahead of shipping finishing for the year.