Shippers accounted for 44% of all weanling bulls in Ennis Mart on Tuesday for Clare Marts annual autumn-born weanling sale.
Prices didn’t hit the extreme highs of 2025, but remained considerably ahead of two years ago.
Between bulls and heifers, there were 457 head on offer, and 250 of these were bulls, up a fraction on 2025.
Weanling bulls weighing between 300kg and 400kg averaged €5.09/kg this week, compared to €5.46/kg 12 months ago.
Average price for the top third of those, in that weight range, was €5.65/kg – back 45c/kg on the same sale last year.
Trade for the bottom third of bulls of that weight were up 20c/kg.
Heavy bulls
Heavy bulls were generally trading for €4/kg to €4.60/kg and a select few went over €5/kg at the upper end of the trade.
For the top end of heavier bulls – those tipping the scales from 400kg to 450kg – that average was €5.21/kg, a drop of 0.55c/kg on a year ago.
Speaking after the sale, mart manager Martin McNamara said:
“We were only back 16 animals on the same time last year and our average price for weanlings is back €80 across the board on the same day a year ago – and that’s with a higher percent dairy-crosses.
The average price of bulls was €1,824/head and that includes around 20 bulls from the dairy herd. Heifers were averaging €1,602 with about 10% were dairy crosses. We had more dairy type stock than 12 months ago.
"Shippers underpinned the trade again this year, buying over 40% of bulls. We had a good percentage of strong bulls this week, half of them were over 400kg. That heavier bull was up 10c/kg to 15c/kg on the last few weeks, but the presence of a few bull beef men helped that.
"I was surprised there was as many bulls over 420kg, given the strong trade for those heavy bull weanlings over the last few months.
"It's becoming more noticeable in the last number of years that farmers are using more and more AI and they’re realising that vaccination is very important. That’s good to see because the customer base, both farmer and shipper show a preference for vaccinated weanlings.”
