Ballinasloe Mart in Co Galway recorded a larger entry of in excess of 1,000 lambs in their weekly sale on Thursday evening. The brightest trade on the evening was for well-fleshed slaughter-fit lambs with factory agents keen not to let any lambs return home unsold. Prices paid were very much influenced by flesh cover with a differential rising to and in cases exceeding €8 evident for lambs of a similar weight but varying quality.

Fleshed ram lambs weighing in excess of 50kg sold from €90 to €94 over the weight with a handful of superior quality butcher-type lambs or ewe lambs with breeding potential rising to €95 to €98 over the weight. There was a similar trend for lambs weighing 46kg to 48kg with prices ranging in a wider differential from €80 to €90 over the weight.

Likewise store lambs weighing around the 43kg to 44kg and needing considerable feeding sold from €106 to €114 with fleshed short-keep lambs with scope to carry weight and achieve favourable slaughter performance selling to the mid €120s.

The store lamb trade was mixed. Nice-quality lowland store lambs weighing from 37kg to 40kg sold from €2.40/kg to €2.65/kg for the best-quality types. Light lambs which were presented as a long finishing prospect sold back to €2.10/kg to €2.30/kg.