After a positive week last week, it’s another week of primarily price increases across the board, but it’s heavy heifers and bull weanlings in particular that have seen a real spark under them.

Even with numbers of cattle creeping up in marts by around 20% this week, buyers are still very hungry for numbers, with northern, exporter and factory agents pressed hard against the cold steel rails around rings.

The northern trade has only recently picked up after hitting a significant lull earlier in the year, particularly in the cow trade, as confusion over the TB rule changes along with falling beef prices saw their interest wain.

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Northern buyers are a particularly important outlet for many border and northwestern marts, with these buyers keen for quality types of store and finished cattle for direct slaughter.

Meanwhile, further afield, exporters to northern Africa are still making their presence known at weanling rings, with several shows and sales seeing top-end bull weanlings come forward for sale suiting their criteria.

While the percentage of weanlings they are buying at sales is starting to decrease as more farmer activity and numbers come forward, once a bull crosses the weigh bridge that ticks their box, it’s a battle between exporters present to take that animal home.

Finally, the farmer buyers. As I noted last week, mart managers were still confident that farmers buyers would still appear ringside this back end to replace slaughtered cattle, whether the quality and numbers they buy will decrease.

A solid factory trade this week should put a bit more pep in their step as they appear ringside.

Around the ring

A huge lift in heavy heifer prices this week has now seen them storm ahead on lighter heifer price to the tune of 19c-27c/kg, with heifers over 600kg crossing the €4/kg barrier for the first time in many months. A lift of 20c/kg inn factory price is a likely factor, with heifers hitting up to €6.80/kg in some factories this week, with flat prices of €7.15/kg being talked of in an effort to secure numbers.

Steers haven’t jumped up as high for the heavy lots, but there has been a more consistent increase in price of 6-10c/kg, with all types of bullocks trading between €3.87/kg and €3.99/kg over the last week.

In the weanling bulls, light bulls below 300kg have jumped 15c/kg to €4.86/kg, while the ever popular 300-400kg bracket has rocketed up by 20c/kg. This is putting your average quality 350kg bull at a price of €1,813, while the top third of bulls of this weight selling for €2,079, a price difference of €266/head. Heavy bulls are still trading well on average at €4.85/kg for 400-450kg types, with 450kg+ averaging a respectable €4.70/kg. However, casting our eye over the top third of bulls in these weights and we see how these out of spec bulls for exporters can suffer.

Heifer weanling numbers are still only half that of bulls, but positive increases in price can be seen for the types that are there, with light heifers just 6c/kg behind that of bull weanlings.