There was just under 400 sheep present in the sales yard of Ballinasloe Mart for the weekly sheep sale.

With the rocky factory prices, spring lambs and hoggets were not as sought after, but the demand for cull ewes remained high.

There was a small entry of quality well-fleshed spring lambs weighing over 50kg and they topped at €194 for a pen of tight-skinned Charollais lambs that weighed 52kg. The rest of the entry sold from €187 to €193.

There was a slightly bigger entry of lighter spring lambs weighing from 40kg to 50kg that went on to sell from €156 to €185. Overall, spring lambs sold from €3.35/kg to €3.95/kg.

Hogget numbers were low, but that was to be expected at this time of year. Topping the hogget trade was a pen of quality Milford-sired ewe hoggets that weighed 60kg and sold for €215/head.

The majority of the hogget section was made up of heavy ewe hoggets weighing from 50kg to 60kg. Like the quality, the prices also ranged largely, with pens selling from €158 to €215.

There were only a few pens of lighter hoggets present and the quality also ranged greatly. This led to a large range in price of €95 to €173 for these 40kg to 50kg hoggets. The entire hogget section achieved a price per kilo range of €2.32 to €3.74.

The cull ewe section was the strongest of the sale, with a pair of heavy ewes weighing 100kg each selling for €292/head and achieving a price per kilo of €2.92.

Lighter ewes and older with poorer flesh covering sold from €90 to €130, while a large number of the heavy high-quality continental ewes sold over €200. The entire cull ewe entry sold from €1.43/kg to a top of €3.01/kg.

Ewe and lamb numbers were down slightly on previous sales and prices also steadied.

It was a pair of Suffolk-cross ewes with four Texel-sired lambs at foot that topped the section, selling for €400 per outfit.

The rest of the ewes and lambs on offer sold from €224 to €396 depending on ewe age, quality and litter size.