There was a small entry of just under 300 sheep present in the Roscommon Livestock Mart sales yard last week.

The quality of sheep on offer on the day was extremely high, leading to a strong trade from start to finish and an overall clearance rate of 99% being achieved.

The entry in Roscommon was mostly made up of hoggets, cull ewes and a small number of in-lamb ewes and ewes with lambs at foot.

The sale was topped at €400 by a strong Texel ewe with her twin lambs at foot.

Demand for ewes with lambs at foot was high, with ewes with twin lambs selling from €370 to €400 and ewes with single lambs selling to €328.

Buyers were also keen for in-lamb ewes. These sold from €272 to €264 per head.

Cull ewes

Like marts across the country, demand for cull ewes remained very strong, with a top price of €278 being paid for a cull ewe weighing 103kg.

The majority of the cull ewes present were high-quality ewes and well fleshed, leading to prices of €148 to €260 being paid out by eager buyers.

There was also a small number of cull rams on offer. They were well-fleshed continental rams and they sold from €220 to €242.

Hoggets

Hogget numbers remained on par with previous weeks, but the quality of hoggets on offer was much higher, with many good-quality ewe hoggets available.

A large number of the hoggets on offer weighed over 50kg. These heavy hoggets sold from €195 per head to €218 per head and achieved a price per kilo range of €3.69/kg to €4.04/kg.

The largest number of hoggets on offer were in the 40kg to 50kg category and they were the most sought after from ringside buyers.

These hoggets sold from €155 per head to €215 per head. The price per kilo range for this category was from €3.50/kg to €4.43/kg.

There was a small number of hoggets weighing from 30kg to 40kg.

The quality of these lighter hoggets was very strong and they sold from €131 per head to €200, achieving a price per kilo range of €3.50/kg to €5.13/kg.

There were no hoggets entered for the sale weighing less than 30kg.

Mart manager Tony Conry commented: “It was very positive to see a buzz around the sales yard today for the high-quality sheep that were on offer.”