Last Thursday’s fatstock sale at Listowel Mart saw a large entry of over 617 animals on offer between cows, heifers, bullocks and bulls.

The trade was very strong according to mart manager Barney O’Connell. Although the mart is in a dairy area, prices were strong considering a good proportion of the cattle sold would be coming from a dairy background.

The strongest trade was for forward bullocks and heifer. He said that there were a number of feedlot buyers present and they were snapping up all short-keep types, with plenty of demand for Angus and Hereford crosses also from specialist finishers.

Heavy Hereford and Angus bullocks over 600kg sold from €1,105 to €1,400, or from €450 to €770 over the weight, with the highest price of €1,400 achieved for a bunch of eight Angus bullocks weighing 637kg on average.

A group of good-quality forward Friesian bullocks, weighing 626kg on average, made €489 along with the weight, or €1.80/kg.

There was strong demand for lighter stores from 500kg to 600kg also. Prices of these ranged mainly from €2.00/kg to €2.17/kg for Angus-crosses and up to €2.15/kg for continentals. Lighter stores from 400kg to 500kg sold mainly from €1.65/kg to €1.98/kg for Friesians and from €2.00/kg to €2.25/kg for Angus and Herefords, with continentals making up to €2.31/kg.

Barney said that the highlight of the light stores was a pen of 10 top-quality Hereford weanlings which weighed 361kg on average. They sold for €2.35/kg, or for €850/head.

There was very strong demand for short-keep heifers also. Those over 600kg were scarce, but those from 550kg to 600kg sold mainly from €500 to €685 with the weight, with better-quality Angus heifers making up to €2.17/kg.

Lighter types from 500kg to 550kg were more abundant and sold mainly from €500 to €600 over the weight.

The majority of Angus and Limousin-cross heifers in that weight category made from €2.00/kg to €2.16/kg.

Lighter stores from 400kg to 500kg sold mainly from €420 to €605 over the weight. Again, the best demand was for better-quality continental crosses and Hereford-crosses.

Commission rates are 1.7% to the seller and €9 to €10 to the buyer.