Numbers are starting to tail off after a busy spring in Bandon Mart, where 1,180 calves were on offer at its bank holiday calf sale.

This represents a drop of about 150 head compared with last week and 300 fewer calves than the same time last year.

Farmers joined shippers and agents at the ringside this week.

Perhaps it was a combination of a reaction to mart manager Sean Dennehy’s concerns about lack of farmer buyers in last week’s Irish Farmers Journal or the bank holiday sale effect, but they had a positive impact on trade for strong calves.

Lighter calves

While it was mainly stronger calves on offer, there was a selection of lighter calves and these sold from €80 back to €40.

A very small percentage sold for less than €40 - those that did were primarily closer to 40kg and given buyers had a good selection of bigger calves to pick from, it was always going to be a tougher sale for a small calf.

As could be expected, traditional beef breed-crosses were most numerous in a lairage and the vast majority of those from 60kg to 75kg sold for between €90 and €240.

What was noticeable this week was the quality of calves on offer, which resulted in a buoyant market for heavier calves.

This could be seen in the amount of Angus- and Hereford-cross calves over 80kg that were making in excess of €250.

Considerably more so in some cases, as some traditional beef breed-cross calves made well over €300, with up to €460 paid on occasion. These were well-done calves approaching weaning with some weighing a little over 100kg.

Thinner on the ground

After appearing in bigger numbers recently, continentals were thinner on the ground this week and prices for them followed an almost identical trend to those of Angus- and Hereford-cross calves.

Friesian bulls were slack this week, but €50 to €170 would have picked up most of what was on offer, with a small number selling for either side of that range.

There was a special section for Friesian heifer calves and prices for these ranged from €90 to €280.