Spring lamb prices topped €180/head at Athenry Mart today (Monday, May 16) for lambs weighing 50kg.

Just under 50 lots of spring lambs were on offer at the Co. Galway-based mart, with the number of pens of hoggets on offer falling to single digits.

Cull ewes remain a good trade and once again broke the €200/head mark, however two heavy 125kg rams took the top price of the day at €240 each.

Looking at the trade for spring lambs first, heavy 50kg plus lambs sold from €173/head up to €178/head, with one pen of 50kg lambs selling for €180/head as mentioned.

Lambs weighing from 45-49kg traded from €165/head up to €171/head, for 47kg lambs, while 40-44kg spring lambs moved at prices ranging from €145/head up to €165/head, for 44.5kg lambs.

As mentioned, the number of pens of hoggets on offer at Athenry Mart was in the single digits.

Prices for hoggets in general ranged from €165/head up to €181/head, with the latter price mainly for those weighing over 60kg.

Cull ewes witnessed a firm trade once again, with prices for ewes hitting €200/head or more on a couple of occasions for those weighing over 100kg.

Prices for ewes in the 85-98kg weight bracket traded from €160/head up to €196/head.

Ewes weighing 80-84kg sold from a base of just under €150/head and sold up to nearly €180/head, with ewes weighing 70-79kg starting from a base of €120-125/head and making up to nearly €167/head.