The trade for store cattle was ‘getting hotter’ at Monday’s (March 29) sale at Mid-Tipp Mart in Thurles according to the manager Martin Ryan, who Agriland spoke to get get a mart manager’s view this week.

Speaking to Agriland about the sale of cattle this week, Martin said:

“The trade in general is definitely getting hotter over the past few weeks and farmers were very anxious for cattle over the past week.

“It may have been slightly artificially manipulated by the end of the tax year – a lot of farmers were trying to have their cattle bought by April 1.

“We saw a few customers come out that wouldn’t have bought anything until last week.

“There are a lot of farmers starting sell yearling cattle that would have usually held onto them until the back end of the year, but they are moving them that bit earlier and it could be nitrates or it could be down to prices either,” Martin added.

Bigger entry of cattle

“For this coming sale on Monday [April 5] we have a much bigger entry of cattle booked in, so farmers are definitely staring to move their cattle at the minute and take advantage of the prices being paid,” Martin continued.

Looking the prices paid for some of the Angus and Herford cattle this week, Angus bullocks falling into the 500-600kg category were receiving bids starting at €1.96/kg and reaching up to €2.30/kg.

Meanwhile, Hereford and Angus heifers weighing between 400-500kg were sold at €1.95/kg up to €2.33/kg – with more of the higher prices paid for the Angus-bred females. Commenting on this, Martin said:

“I’d have to say Angus and Hereford cattle were much hotter on Monday than they were in the weeks before.

“In terms of the Friesian bullocks, if you had the quality, they were coming in over €2.00/kg but they would be the real deal and be good blocks of bullocks.

“It is the bottom end of these Friesian bullocks that lifted the most. A couple of weeks ago you may have been able buy these ones at €1.60-1.70/kg, but they have now moved up to €1.80-1.85/kg at Monday’s sale.

“We only had around 25 dry cows in it this week, but from what I saw being paid, they were making more than what farmers are being quoted by the factories.”

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View on calf sales

The Tipperary-based mart also held a sale of calves on Wednesday (March 31) with Martin stating “numbers had being a bit quieter this week.”

“The shipping activity was a bit more active this week, because the week beforehand they had been sort of blown out of the water with the farmers competing against them for calves.”

In terms of prices he stated that Angus bulls averaged at €221/head, with these selling up to highs of €335/head. Hereford bulls ranged from €180/head up to €350/head with the average price paid being €258/head.

From the selection of Friesian calves, the lighter type of shipping calf started at €35/head then prices for stronger and reared Friesian bull calves reached up to €270/head.