After the conclusion of the sale at Ballymahon Mart on Thursday, April 22, Agriland caught up with the auctioneer on the day, Denis O’Rourke, to get his opinion and views on the trade last week.
The mart hosted over 180 head of cattle in its rings last week.
Commenting on the cull cow trade, O’Rourke said:
“The cull cow(s) met a fantastic trade this week. Cows were making €2.00/kg and some of them making well above it – so there is obviously a demand for beef in factories when you see the cow trade picking up so well.
“There is going to be a continuing demand for beef for the next few weeks it seems, going by the way some of the customers were fit to buy cows and forward cattle this week.
“Cull cows are probably the best trade of all for the farmer at the minute.”
Store bullocks and heifers
Moving on to speak about the sale of store bullocks and heifers, Denis said:
“The trade was again good for the store cattle in general. This started with the lighter store from 300kg, up to the 500kg store – these cattle were all hitting prices of €2.30/kg, €2.40/kg and €2.50/kg.
“Look over the past few weeks, it’s no secret that there has been a demand for these grass store cattle.
“Considering that we are heading for the last week of April, there was a serious demand for those quality continental stores, and the quality coming to the marts is staying up too – which is a great thing for buyers,” he added.
“Considering the year that is in it, the frost and slow growth is probably after doing harm to the grass around this part of the country – but there is still a demand there this week for good store cattle, and there always will be a demand for the good-quality cattle.
“We probably didn’t have as many heavier ones today, but the strong trade for those forward stores is still there, and those ‘beefier’ sorts of cattle were probably making more today than what they would have been getting in the factory,” Denis O’Rourke concluded.