A handful of things spark a price increase in the live cattle trade, with all of them linkedwith money.

We see a spike in late spring where grass buyers are looking to source their numbers for ANC payments, with another seen towards the weanling sales in September when BISS payments are made.

The third is a lift in beef prices and with a steadying of the boat last week and further talks of deals being done to secure numbers from farmers, renewed confidence has been dispersed among beef buyers this week.

ADVERTISEMENT

A sharper interest from factory agents around the mart rings looking to secure numbers has trickled down in the beef finishers giving that bid or two extra for store cattle, which, as we have pointed out prior, are a phenomenal trade given the way that factory prices have been over the last while.

Stories of factories outbidding each other ringside, paying well above quoted factory price, have been circulating.

Difference

An example of this was witnessed in Gortlatlea Mart where a batch of 21 Angus bullocks were all sold together.

Weighing 719kg on average, the gavel fell at €2,900/head or €4.03/kg.

Bonuses in the factory and talks of flat deals of €7/kg couldn’t compare. By my reckoning, the farmer would have to get up on €7.70/kg in the factory to tally close to it.

The difference in what they took home compared to what they would have possibly taken in a factory cheque runs in the mid-four figures. Should Kerry get in the All-Ireland final, they will have a good weekend on the back of it.

Looking at the MartBids table this week, it’s primarily green arrows all the way for both the bullocks and heifers, with just the top third of heifers weighing from 500kg to 600kg seeing a slight fall in price.

Strangely, 400kg to 500kg heifers of the same quality jumped 16c/kg, with the price difference between a 450kg top-end heifer and a 520kg top-end heifer only being €74/head on average.

Average-quality heifers are up between 6c and 14c/kg, save for that 500kg to 600kg heifer in which there is no price change.

In the bullocks, average prices are up between 4c and 15c/kg, with no clear distinction between weights and price increases.

Top-end heavy bullocks weighing 600kg-plus are knocking on the door of €4/kg, similar to our Gortatlea bullocks above, and, as shown, a strong deal would need to be done with a factory before it’s a better financial option than the mart.

Weanlings are a positive trade for the most part, with the mid-range bulls weighing 300kg to 400kg selling for €4.57/kg (up 8c/kg), while heifers of the same weight are trading at €4.63/kg, which is up 22c/kg.

Cows, too, have seen an improvement in price this week, though numbers are very low.

Average prices are up 5c/kg to see cows trading at €2.93/kg.

The top and bottom third of cows are trading at €3.59/kg and €2.26/kg respectively, up 12c/kg and 2c/kg.