Last Monday evening’s sheep sale at Kingscourt Mart, Co Cavan, saw another improved trade all round according to mart manager Lisa Keenan. She said the mart is seeing a lot of fat hoggets and ewes on offer, with few stores passing through. Lisa said sellers were extremely happy with the direction of the trade in the past few weeks, with prices starting to lift.

In terms of demand on Monday night, she said there were plenty of factory agents active for all fat ewes and lambs, and they were a little more hungry for them this week compared with the previous week. She said that as a result factory-fit hoggets were up by another €3 to €4 per head on last week. Hoggets over 50kg sold mainly from €110/head to €117/head, while those from 45kg to 50kg sold mainly from €102/head to €109/head.

There was improved demand for good-quality cull ewes also, with good-quality heavy types with those over 80kg making €100 to €120.

Lisa said the improved demand is helping to increase the size of the sale. She said the move from having a sheep sale from a Wednesday to a Monday evening has also helped to increase the number of sheep on offer.