Another week and another shot of positivity in the beef trade. After months of heavy and forward store cattle falling in price the last few weeks, we have seen a much sharper trade for cattle above 500kg.

While many farmers had held off on letting some of their strongest cattle out of the sheds after a delayed spring, numbers of finished cattle coming out of sheds has said to have well and truly dried up, with an extremely low kill witnessed last week.

A few weeks ago, we were hearing of full cold stores from factories, but the pendulum seems to have swung more in the favour of finishers now, with factories keen to source cattle at sales across the country.

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Heavy heifers over 600kg rose by 22c/kg this week, with a 6c/kg rise witnessed last week. That’s a massive 28c/kg or €173.60 on a 620kg heifer, the difference between a loss and a profit for many finishers.

In the bullock ring, prices for heavy bullocks above 600kg are lagging behind their female counterparts to the tune of 15c/kg. Saying this, we have also seen a 20c/kg rise in price over the last fortnight in these types of stock, equating to €128/head for your 640kg bullock.

Outperforming

While lighter cattle had been outperforming all spring and summer when we compared it to finished price, forward store cattle and dairy beef stock have now seen a turn for the better on price similar to their finished counterparts.

Average-quality forward heifers weighing 500kg to 600kg rose 16c/kg this week to clock in at €3.90/kg, while bullocks were behind by 11c/kg at €3.79/kg after a 13c/kg rise this week.

This same weight class of bullocks jumped 13c/kg last week as well, equating to a 550kg bullock now €143/head dearer than this day two weeks previous.

By all accounts, it’s positive news for sellers of stock.

Weanlings

Our first special weanling sale was covered by Tommy Moyles, with Cahersiveen’s Iveragh sale being lit up by exporter demand.

Two thirds of weanlings look set to see the boat from the sale, with an interesting point made by Tommy in the price comparison between these top-quality weanlings and the bottom third quality-wise.

The top third of bulls in that sweet spot of 300kg to 400kg sold to an impressive average of €6.04/kg, up 50c/kg on the same sale last year, while the bottom third sold to an average of €4.44/kg, back 35c/kg on last year’s sale.

Will this be a running trend for the 2026 season?

Exporter demand, similar to factory agents at the minute, seems to be strong, with 2,000 bulls having departed the country earlier this week by one exporter alone.

If a bull isn’t meeting export criteria, have finishers the want to buying these plainer animals?

Heavy bulls are a no-no for the export and home markets, so caution needs to be exercised that we are ticking the box weight-wise and getting bulls to sales rings before they become too heavy.