Limousin-crosses were kings of the ring in Cahersiveen at Iveragh Co-operative Mart’s annual autumn-born weanling show and sale last Tuesday.
A combination of excellent stock and exporter demand led to top-quality red Limousin bulls comfortably making €1/kg and more on occasion than Charolais-crosses of the same weight.
Pre-sale concerns that bigger than usual turnouts of weanlings at sales earlier this year at the south Kerry venue would impact numbers, but this wasn’t the case.
This week’s sale was only back 19 head on the same time last year. Heavier bulls over 450kg were noticeable absentees with numbers well back compared to a year ago and so was their price; they averaged €4.71/kg compared to €5.02/kg in 2025.
Shippers
With the exception of two animals, all of the 247 cattle on offer were suckler-bred.
About 190 were weanling bulls and of those, almost two thirds of them were bought by shippers.
Bulls weighing from 300kg to 400kg were most numerous and on average they traded for €5.13/kg, up 8c/kg on last year.
Averages only tell part of the story however, as the top third of bulls in that weight category sold for an average of €6.04/kg, a lift of 50c/kg on the same sale last year.
This was almost €2/kg over the bottom third, which averaged €4.09/kg – back from €4.44/kg in 2025.
Manager Mike Kissane said that this week’s sale highlighted the importance of the live export trade at a time when farmer confidence in factories had taken a hit.
Domestic market
Following the sale he said: “Heavy calves are not wanted as much this year and I think the main reason for that is the buyers for the domestic market. The farmers that are feeding those bulls for the factories have lost confidence in the factories because of what they did this spring and the money they lost and as a result they’re not buying back the heavy bulls for feeding.
"Last year was deemed to be an exceptional year – but the one factor this year is we had more of the super red Limousin-type cattle that are wanted for export – and that would have a bearing as well on the market. The exporters were very active for those real good muscly cattle for export. As a result, they would have skewed the figures slightly in that the quality was exceptional, and the real good calf is making the money, but the plainer calf isn’t.”
