Kilkenny Mart’s final sale of 2025 saw 450 cattle pass through the ring, a figure up on the same sale last year.

While better-quality stores remained a relatively solid trade, plainer lots and Friesian bullocks were tougher, with these lots generally selling back to between €3.20/kg and €3.30/kg, with these noted by auctioneer George Candler as having “easily broken the €4/kg barrier a number of months ago”.

Recent cuts in factory quotes have no doubt played their part in this, while poor exporter demand over the past number of weeks has also been noted in the southeast mart as having a negative effect on price.

Dairy-beef origin

The majority on stock on offer was of dairy-beef origin, with some good-quality suckler-bred stock also presented for sale. A clearance rate of 91% was recorded across all lots.

A small show of light heifers between 350kg and 400kg averaged €3.18/kg, with the majority of these being plainer and poor weight for age types, with the sale being dominated by heifers in the 400kg to 500kg bracket, with close to a quarter of the cattle on offer being of this type.

Medium-quality heifers of this weight sold to an average of €3.67/kg, with the top and bottom third quality wise selling for €3.90/kg and €3.19/kg respectively.

Heavy heifers

Just shy of 40 heifers weighed in between 500kg and 600kg, with little difference being recorded in quality, with the top third selling for €3.76/kg, while the overall average was €3.62/kg.

Bullocks were a sharper trade overall. Quality store bullocks between 400kg and 500kg averaged €4.62/kg, while medium-quality types still managed to stay above the €4/kg mark at €4.02/kg.

Poorer-quality lots were 54c/kg behind this, with a price differential of €1.14/kg being recorded between the bottom third and top third of bullocks quality wise.

More forward stores between 500kg and 600kg averaged slightly higher at €4.13/kg, with good numbers of these available.

A differential of 94c/kg was recorded between the top and bottom third of bullocks of this weight quality wise, with these bullocks averaging €4.62/kg and €3.68/kg respectively.

Some 27 heavy bullocks over 600kg came to an average of €3.77/kg, or €2,375.10/head for a 630kg animal, with factory agents not as keen for cattle as a number of weeks previous.

Top call of the sale was a trio of Angus-cross bullocks born between January and March 2023 that weighed in an average of 70kg and sold for €2,820/head (€3.98/kg).