There was a bigger than usual sale in Corrin Mart for its weekly cattle sale on Tuesday last and there appeared to be another bounce in prices across the board. This was most notable for both dairy-cross stores and weanlings.

Following the sale, mart manager Sean Leahy said: “We can’t predict prices week to week and if anyone can, good luck to them.

“We couldn’t have perceived that they would jump so much this week, especially for those mid-range stores between 320kg and 420kg.

“We’ve seen incremental increases [in the] last five weeks when they were up 10c/kg or 15c/kg, but this week was a big jump.

Steady

“Numbers have been steady. This would normally be our quietest time of year, but this week, with 635, was a multiple of the same sale a year ago.

“I’d put that down to the increase in beef price and the fact farmers are seeing there is a better price to be got.

“We’re seeing an increase in throughput of bullocks, heifers, weanlings and calves, but cows numbers are down lately and I can see dry cows being very tight for the remainder of the year.

“What suckler weanlings were getting 12 months ago, dairy-bred calves are getting now. It’s a big jump and it’s only the first week of August.”

Strong demand

The strong demand for calves that was coming from all markets in the second quarter of the year has now moved on to runners and weanlings.

There were 213 calves on offer, with two big entries from herds that were restricted due to TB until recently.

Trade was very brisk for all 2025-born calves and they were making from €1,220 for some Belgian Blue-crosses down to €640 for some traditional beef bred calves from Jersey or Jersey-cross dams.

Friesians and Friesian-crosses were scarce, but what was there generally sold for between €4.20/kg and €4.30/kg.

Regarding the runner trade, Sean said: “On a per-kilo basis, Angus are the dearest – they’re in savage demand for both bulls and heifers.

“We’re seeing both farmers and exporters competing well for spring 2025-born cattle. Farmers are very strong when it comes to the traditional beef breeds and exporters seem to be going more for the continental-crosses and Friesians.

“Prices of between €1,000 to €1,200 are common enough for those dairy-cross runners and farmers are stretching out the money more than they were. There’s a feeling that 2025-born calves will be scarce and its filtering all the way down.”