Farmer demand resulted in shippers having to take a back seat at the annual show and sale in Cashel Mart on Saturday last.

They were out in force on the lookout for all classes of cattle and, in many cases, drove trade above the prices exporters were willing to go to.

Between bulls and heifers, there was over 300 weanlings on offer and the vast majority of them, whether they were from a suckler or dairy background, sold for between €4/kg and €6/kg, with a few breaking that upper price point on occasion.

Demand was steady, regardless of the animal’s background breeding.

After the sale, auctioneer Kalen McNamara said: “We had a fine sale and the show brought out a few extra numbers.

"There was over 120 lots of bull weanlings, with a mix of very good continental bulls and an awful lot of Angus and Hereford bucket-fed calves. We had lots of farmers very anxious to buy right across the board.

Active shippers

"For continental weanlings, we had shippers active, but they were being put to it by farmers. They were adamant they were going to get those nice Charolais and Limousin calves and we saw €6.40/kg back to around €4.50/kg paid for those.

"The big thing we saw was the demand for those 280kg to 320kg ones, but the ones over 400kg were harder to sell. Heavier bulls were just a little bit stickier, finishers weren’t as active for heavy bulls and that’s it.

"Angus- and Hereford-cross weanling bulls went from around €4/kg up as far as €5.45/kg. For the dairy-bred animal, you’d see farmers are looking at the board and making sure those dairy-bred weanlings are from a Friesian or Friesian-cross calf rather than a Jersey-cross. They are getting wiser to it.”

Compared to other years, he said Friesian numbers were scarce.

“There was only seven lots of them, but they made great money. A bunch weighing 258kg sold for €940 (€3.64/kg) and down the weights, we saw prices of up to €4.44/kg paid for nice black and white bulls.

"On the heifers overall, they were a slight bit easier. There was a lovely run of Charolais heifers making over €5/kg and a few Simmental heifers making great prices too.

"The dairy-bred ones were sitting between €4/kg and €4.30/kg. They were the real trade and we had very strong online activity from farmer customers in the midlands for heifers.

"For stores, both online and ringside bidding was very active. Those bullocks around 470kg to 480kg were making over €4/kg and good few sold from there back to €3.80/kg.

"On the heifer side, not all of them broke €4/kg. The ones that did tended to be continental-crosses and we saw up to €4.40/kg paid for them.”