It’s been busy for Newport Mart with four sale days last week culminating in a commercial Hereford show and sale at the Co Tipperary venue on Saturday.

The sale, which has been taking place for over 20 years, saw a good appetite for all classes of stock, with bull weanlings especially strong sellers.

Across dairy- and suckler-bred stock, they were making from €4.44/kg to €5.50/kg, with heifers trading for between €3.08/kg to €4.69/kg.

Up to €4.48/kg was paid on bullocks, with the higher end of prices going for younger stock – spring 2025-born bullocks made between €3.70/kg and €4/kg.

It wrapped up a run of four consecutive sale days which gave a good insight into the cattle trade and included a general cattle sale, a weanling sale and a dairy clearance.

Commenting on what was a busy few days, mart manager, James Lee said: “It’s been a busy week. We had over 550 cattle through the ring, so it was a good week for us, with a 95% clearance.

All likelihood is that beef will stay where it is now, which will help the trade in general. There’s a good bit of confidence there still.

At Thursday’s general sale, there were a few nice Limousin heifers making over €4.10/kg.

Bullock trade

"The bullock trade has been moving steadily up over the last few weeks," he added.

"Continentals are making between €4.20/kg to €4.30/kg. Angus and Hereford bullocks were selling for around €3.70/kg to €3.90/kg, with heifers from those breeds making €3.40/kg to €3.50/kg.

"It’s a good bit steadier now and there seems to be plenty of grass now but the drought did impact things. There was a lot of fodder silage made in the last fortnight and that has helped."

'Back around the ring'

"Around the middle or end of August there was a bit of concern there but our regular buyers are back around the ring and we’re seeing more farmers at the moment. They’re a couple of weeks later than other years but I’d put that down to the dry month we had back in the summer."

Lee continued: "At our weanling sale on Friday night, bulls were making anywhere from €5/kg to €6/kg and we had a top price of €6.50/kg for a 270kg bull. It’s all farmers buying, they were willing to go a bit further than shippers. Our next weanling sale will be on a night sale on Friday 23 October and we’re expecting a big one.

"We had a dairy clearance sale on Wednesday in conjunction with auctioneer, Denis Barrett. There were a couple of buyers from the north who were very strong and the tops of that sale were making €2,600/head, with an average of somewhere around €2,000/head to €2,100/head.”