Weanling bulls hit €3.60/kg at Mountrath Mart's E and U-grade sale

A sale of weanling heifers and bulls took place at Mountrath Mart, Co. Laois, on Thursday evening last (March 8). A large crowd gathered around both the heifer and bull rings. Farmers, feedlot buyers and exporters competed for cattle at the ringside.

The mart manager Glen Cooper was delighted with the sale. He said: “There were some lovely continental cattle on sale on the night. There were some nice Belgian Blue cattle in particular.

“In the heifer ring, there was a solid trade for good-quality heifers. However, there was an exceptional trade for the shipping types,” he explained.

150 heifers went under the hammer at the Laois-based venue. Looking at the prices achieved by these heifers, good-quality lots suitable for export traded around the €3.60-4.31/kg. The top price of €4.31/kg was achieved by a well-conformed Belgian Blue heifer.

Heifers purchased by farmers made €2.00-2.80/kg. The average price achieved by these animals was somewhere in the region of €2.50/kg.

In the bull ring, approximately 130 bulls were on offer and the trade was brisk from start to finish. Angus and Hereford types, weighing 400kg and up, were met by strong exporter demand. Lighter continental, well-conformed types were also popular with these buyers.

Shipping bulls sold for €2.80-3.60kg, while good-quality feeding bulls – weighing 400-500kg – traded for €2.60-3.05/kg. Furthermore, forward store bulls traded for somewhere in the region of €2.50-2.60/kg. Plainer types – particularly with dairy genetics – sold anywhere from €2.00/kg to €2.35/kg.

Click on a thumbnail in the gallery (below) to open up a full-size image; once opened you can scroll sideways to see the next picture. Refer to each caption to see details of each lot, including the hammer (sale) price.