Martbids Database: feedlot demand keeps mart trade very firm

I got a blast from the past when an old TV advert from 1990 flashed up on my phone this week. It was for Mr Kipling’s Bramley Apple pies which were described as “exceedingly good”.

The same could be said for this week’s Christmas mart trade, with the trade exceeding expectations up and down the country.

Numbers also remain very steady, with mart managers reporting that the good trade has brought out more cattle than was anticipated over the last two weeks.

Farmers are capitalising on the high demand high prices by shifting cattle earlier.

This will be the last full week of marts in 2024, with many marts having their last sales early next week, with the first sales of January generally kicking in from 6 January onwards.

Kilkenny Mart had 720 cattle on offer last Thursday, a big sale for December. Auctioneer George Candler described the trade as brisk, with a 100% clearance being achieved.

Store Friesian bullocks topped out at €2.18/kg, with top-quality continental bullocks and heifers regularly surpassing the €3.20/kg mark.

Moving further west, exporters are dominating the trade, with weanling exporters working very hard to fill orders for contracts and shipments before Christmas.

Some exceptional prices have been paid this week for top-quality weanlings, with exporters paying €4/kg and over it for top-quality weanlings in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket.

Store cattle are also in demand, with a number of boatloads due to leave for Morocco in the next three weeks.

Over 20,000 Irish cattle will have been exported to Morocco in 2024, one of the big success stories of the last 12 months.

Current indications are that this demand will continue into 2025, with all Irish cattle performing well in the new markets.

The clean-out of weanlings and store cattle towards the end of 2024 has left some mart managers scratching their heads about suppliers of lighter grass cattle come March and April in 2025, with some saying the price of these lighter cattle look set to rise based on basic supply and demand principles.

Taking a look at this week’s Martbids database, we see that most classes of animals had another steady week’s trading in marts.

Heavy bullocks and heifers were up across almost all weight ranges, with feedlots and factory agents very hungry for forward cattle.

Many of these agents are assembling cattle for the period in between Christmas and the new year, with a number of factories indicating this week that they will need supplies during the holiday period.

Top-quality bullocks over 600kg came in at €3.40/kg this week, up 3c/kg on the previous week.

Average-quality cattle in the same weight category came in at €3.05/kg.

It was a similar story in the heifer rings, with top-quality heifers over 600kg coming in at €3.37/kg this week.

Moving to the weanling rings, it was another steady week, with top-quality 300kg to 400kg weanling bulls coming in at €3.90/kg this week, unchanged from last week.