Martbids Database: record increases in cattle prices in 2025

The last 12 months will go down as one of the most positive years in the mart trade in the last number of decades.

The Irish Farmers Journal Martbids Database gives us a really good insight into the cattle trade for the year.

This database collates millions of datapoints on a weekly basis, pulling together type of animals, breed, age, weight, etc, from marts all over the country to give a summary of the cattle trade.

At the end of the year, this database allows us to collate all the data together and analyse the mart trade over the last 12 months.

Over the next two weeks, we’ll take a deep dive into this year’s figures and compare them to last year and the previous four years.

As with the weekly analysis, a page of green arrows on the 12 months’ averages signals an increase in price across the board and some of these increases were 10 times the increase we saw from 2023 to 2024.

Speaking to mart managers, they are resoundingly positive about the trade, with some still concerned about numbers of sucklers, despite the higher prices. It will be interesting to see if this year’s higher weanling prices help to stabilise numbers in 2026.

Weanling trade

The weanling trade was no exception and saw some of the largest increases in 2025.

Take for example 300kg to 400kg weanlings – one of the most popular types of animals traded in marts during the year.

The top 33% of bull weanlings saw an increase of 27c/kg from 2023 to 2024 or €94/head on a 350kg bull weanling.

This increase rose to a massive €2.35/kg from 2024 to 2025 or €822/head, one of the largest increases in recent decades.

Top-quality weanling bulls in the 300kg to 400kg bracket came in at an average price of €6.18/kg or €2,163/head.

In the heifer weanling rings, it was a similar story, with top-quality heifer weanlings in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket coming in at an increase of €2.26/kg or €791/head over the last 12 months.

The top heifer weanlings in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket came in at €5.89/kg or €2,061/head.

Lighter weanlings were in demand, especially at the back end of the year when cattle prices really took off.

The top price per kg across all stock categories were 200kg to 300kg bull weanlings coming in at €6.18/kg for the last 12 months, an increase 0f €2.48/kg (€620/head) and an increase of €3.24/kg on the 2021 price.

In the bullock rings, all top-quality bullocks in most weight categories came in knocking on the door of €5/kg. Most of the bullocks were up over €2/kg on the 2024 trade.

Mart throughput

Mart throughput declined slightly in 2025 by almost 45,000 head, just over 2% of a decline on the total number of animals traded in 2024.

The figures released by the Department of Agriculture include the mart throughput figures for the first 11 months of 2025.

Within those, marts in Leinster saw an increase in the number of animals traded, up 1,591 animals on the previous 12 months. Munster had the biggest drop, down 17,001 animals on 2024. Connaught saw a drop of 13,340 down to 362,894 animals. Ulster also saw a big drop of 16,172. Interestingly, the not-sold rate dropped from 4.8% in 2024 to 2.5% in 2025.