With little or no change in factory hogget quotes, trade in the marts remains steady.

Hopes are building that, with Easter on the horizon, more bite will come into the trade. Good-quality fleshed 47kg to 50kg hoggets are selling for €110 to €115/head, or €63 to €65 over the weight. Some mixed-quality and tail-end lots are selling for €5 to €10/head below this range.

Hoggets weighing over 50kg are making €114 to €118/head, but the variation in quality is a big factor on prices. Lowland-bred stores weighing 42kg to 46kg are selling from €92 to €105/head, or €50 to €59 over.

Some good-quality dry ewe hoggets have achieved significant price premiums when interested farmers got stuck in. Prices of up to €120/head were achieved in sales.

Lighter store hoggets are starting to meet a tougher trade as the season-end draws closer and numbers fall.

Lowland-bred store hoggets weighing 35kg to 40kg are making €75 to €88/head (€2.14/kg to €2.20/kg). Similar-weight crossbred hoggets are selling from €1.90/kg to €2.10/kg.

Scotch hoggets weighing 30kg to 34kg are selling from €1.80/kg to €2/kg, with premiums of 20c above these prices being achieved.

Spring lambs are slowly starting to make an appearance in sales. Lambs weighing 42kg to 44kg are selling from €112 to €120/head, but mart managers say there is not a huge appetite for lambs just yet.

Cull ewes

The momentum continues behind the cull ewe trade. Medium-sized fleshed ewes are selling from €105 to €118/head. Top-quality heavy ewes are making €120 to €130/head. Store ewes have also seen price increases of up to €5/head in sales.