A smaller sale of sheep was reported at Kilkenny Mart on Monday (October 19), with just over 400 sheep on offer.

The mart’s auctioneer, George Candler, reported that numbers were smaller, but that this lead to a firm, if not, slightly stronger trade than the previous week.

George noted that butcher, factory and store lambs were in particularly high demand. On the day, butcher lambs made up to €118/head and generally traded from €110/head up to €117/head.

Moving onto factory-type lambs, these lots sold up to a top call of €112/head. In general, lambs weighing between 42kg and 47kg sold from €102/head up to €112/head.

Once again, store lambs were a strong trade, with stores topping out at €2.67/kg for lambs weighing 36kg. In general, prices for these lots ranged from €85/head for lambs weighing 34kg up to €95/head for lambs weighing 40kg.

George added that cull ewe numbers were back, which helped to create a good selling trade. On Monday, cast ewes traded from €45/head for feeding ewes up to a tops of €127/head for heavy, well-fleshed ewes.