Mart numbers took a big drop last week with the Galway races being one of the biggest factors in the reduced number of cattle coming out for sale in the west.

A number of marts in Galway and Mayo didn’t run sales last week and for those that did, numbers were very low.

The lower numbers didn’t affect the trade though, with increased prices evident across almost all quality and weight categories this week.

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Despite the higher prices, mart managers are still concerned about what the autumn will hold for the cattle trade, with numbers being to the forefront when it comes to autumn weanling sales.

Exporters have been heaping pressure on mart managers all summer to hold special weanling sales to get the numbers out.

This has meant that a lot of autumn-born weanlings have already been sold, with farmers capitalising on the high prices over the last number of months.

When you couple that with the drop in suckler numbers, you can see why mart managers are scratching their heads as to where the weanlings are going to come from.

Exports

While high weanling exports are a very positive story, there is also some concern about the availability of good-quality store bullocks for the back-end trade.

Taking a look back at this time last year, the top-quality bull weanling in the 300kg to 400kg weight category was coming in at €3.72/kg for the first week of August.

That same weanling came in at €6.25/kg this week. That’s a massive €2.53/kg or €886/head higher for a 350kg weanling.

To cap off the mart managers’ headache, that means a farmer buying 50 weanlings in a mart this autumn is spending almost €50,000 more than they were last year.

More and more marts are moving to a pay-on-the-day system such is the level of risk involved at the moment.

This week’s Martbids analysis table is another one dominated by green arrows, showing the cattle trade kicking on over the last seven days.

Light bullocks met big farmer demand this week, with topquality light store bullocks in the 350kg to 400kg weight bracket coming in at €5.20/kg, up 26c/kg on the previous week.

Heavy bullocks over 600kg also saw a price increase this week, with top-quality bullocks over 600kg coming in at €4.84/kg.

The heifer trade saw similar increases, with better demand for the 400kg to 500kg heifer seen in marts this week. They came in at €5.08/kg this week, up 20c/kg on the previous week.

Bull weanlings were this week’s highlight, with massive increases seen across the board on the back of huge exporter and farmer demand.

Top-quality weanling bulls in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket were up 42c/kg this week, with heavy weanling bulls also meeting serious demand.

The new target for weanlings is €6/kg, with 350kg weanlings now regularly crossing the €2,000/head mark. Top-quality weanling heifers in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket came in at €6.34/kg this week, up 56c/kg.