The mart was a warm place to be this week. I always think them similar to a conservatory on a house – freezing in the winter time and boiling hot in the summer.

Whatever the temperature change did around the ring, it helped to improve prices inside the ring as well, with nearly all cattle seeing a slight price increase this week.

Numbers shrunk again this week, with a lot of farmers opting to utilise the fine weather for other activities rather than selling cattle, which also had a positive effect on price.

There is said to be more scope with official factory quotes, while the finer weather and tourist season should see more demand for beef for barbecues, restaurants, etc, as we enter the peak tourist and holidaying season.

A cold store fire in Los Angeles last week has resulted in 38.6 million kilogrammes of food being lost, with beef understood to be a large part of this.

While it won’t see Irish beef flying stateside, this loss may result in more of our competitors’ beef going there and leaving gaps in the market to be plugged by Irish beef.

One thing that continues to crop up with talking to mart managers is the price of stores, with many stating that they continue to defy odds given the price of finished beef.

If these are going to factory finishing units or to a larger finisher that has a deal done in place, that’s fine and all the better for the person producing the store.

However, smaller finishers ringside who are buying stores with no contract and no great bargaining power should be cautious.

Around the ring

Price increases were seen nearly universally around the bullock and heifer rings this week, with the sharpest increase surprisingly recorded in the bottom third of cattle quality-wise, which consists primarily of dairy beef stock.

Heifers of this lower band saw price increase between 9c/kg and 36c/kg, with greater price increases with each weight band as heifers jumped.

Bullocks were slightly easier, though a rise of 18c/kg was seen for store bullocks from 400kg to 500kg.

Average-quality lots are seeing lighter stores between €3.80/kg and €3.90/kg, with forward and finished types floating around €3.60/kg.

Doing the back-of-the-book sums again this week, a 680kg bullock killing out at 52% will come into carcase weight of 353.6kg.

Putting this bullock at €3.59/kg liveweight in the mart, he’s coming into €2,441.20. The same bullock would have to kill into €6.90/kg in the factory to equal it, though, as always, levies in marts and haulage need to be taken into consideration.

Breed bonuses and quality assurance may see a bullock not far off this price.

Weanling numbers are still very low and will remain so for a while yet, though some more positive sentiment on price was seen around the ring, particularly in heifers, which saw average prices up 22c/kg to 41c/kg.

Culls fell from a solid increase last week, with the top third of cows falling 23c/kg to €3.47/kg, while the average feel to €2.88/kg, 8c/kg less than last week.