Shippers continue to put a solid floor under the weanling trade, meaning the number of weanlings exported is running at a similar level to last year.

After the first full week in August, 30,024 head have been exported, 75 head behind last year but 17% ahead of 2024.

Strong demand from north Africa in particular is seeing prices for top-end bull weanlings hold relatively firm.

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As recently as Wednesday, a shipment of 1,700 cattle arrived in Morocco having left Greenore late last week.

Calves

While weanlings are on par with last year, calves are slightly behind last year. A total of 217,184 have been shipped to date, back 2% on the same period last year.

Sales have been steady through June and July with over 10,000 head going to the Netherlands and Spain.

Of the overall figure, a little over 170,000 head, or four out of every five calves, leaving the country so far this year have been purchased by either Dutch or Spanish buyers.

Demand has been very strong in the Netherlands with 93,714 calves going there marking an increase of 11% on 2025.

This has helped bridge the gap created by the closing of Poland to Irish calves due to bluetongue restrictions. At this point last year, over 25,000 Irish calves were sold to the Polish market.

Overall exports

Despite the good performance of calves and weanlings, overall cattle exports remain behind last year’s figures.

After 32 weeks of trading, data from Bord Bia shows that 273,531 head have been shipped so far, a reduction of 9% on last year’s figure of 301,347.

Much of the decrease is due to a 20% drop in the number of adult cattle sold compared to the previous two years.