Numbers are continuing to increase in marts around the country this week, with mart managers reporting a considerable lift in the last few days.

Heavy rain in the west has done very little harm to ground and in fact will probably result in a flush of grass in the next week or so, but any farmers feeding cattle at troughs are seeing a little damage starting to appear.

Shorter evenings also affect part-time farmers who have less time to do jobs in evenings, so some are taking the option of selling when the trade is good.

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Many held off selling cattle in the last month based on a big headache replacing them. That headache shows no sign of abating, with light cattle still hitting record prices in marts around the country.

Farmers appear to be moving out more to buy in the last two weeks, creating some competition for exporters who were battling among themselves up to this.

The increased competition is probably having most effect on lighter calves in the market at the moment, with light bull weanlings in the 200kg to 300kg weight up in price this week.

Mart managers are also reporting big demand for breeding heifers and in-calf heifers.

Smaller numbers

Some are reporting smaller numbers of in-calf heifers coming out compared with other years, with a lot of farmers opting to hold on to them when they see this year’s trade.

A number of special sales have taken place, with a few more planned for later this month in marts.

Early indications are that top-end heifers are making between €4,000 and €5,000/head, with lesser types back between €3,000 and €4,000.

The dry cow trade is probably driving some of this, with top-quality heavy well-fleshed dry cows knocking on the door of €4,000/head in many marts.

Taking a look at this week’s Martbids analysis table, the trade could probably be best described as steady.

There are a lot of red arrows, but changes in prices have been very small across the board.

Lighter store bullocks met a good solid trade, with top-quality bullocks in the 400kg to 500kg weight bracket coming in at €5.14/kg this week.

Heavier bullocks in the 500kg to 600kg weight bracket in the same quality bracket were unchanged at €5.03/kg.

Heavier bullocks were back a touch, probably on the back of continued negative commentary from factories. That said, they are still a very good trade and, in many cases, ahead of what animals are worth in the factory.

Top-quality heavy bullocks in the 600kg-plus weight category came in at €4.74/kg this week, back 13c/kg on the previous week.

Heifers met a similar trade to last week, with top-quality forward store heifers in the 500kg to 600kg weight bracket coming in at €4.90/kg this week, up 6c/kg on the previous week.

Heavy heifers over 600kg in the same quality bracket were actually up by 20c/kg this week to €4.88/kg.

Weanling bulls continue to trade well across the board, with top-quality weanling bulls weighing between 300kg and 400kg coming in at €6.67/kg this week.

Weanling heifers in the same weight bracket were back a touch this week, with average heifers back 19c/kg to €5.46/kg.