Wet weather has dampened the cattle trade in marts this week, with mart managers reporting store cattle and factory cattle an easier trade over the last seven days.
Some farmers in the northwest have had to house cattle over the last week and with further wet weather forecast at the weekend, more could be housed before the end of the weekend.
This could increase numbers over the next few weeks, with some farmers farming on difficult ground getting worried about second-cut silage and whether it will be able to be harvested or not.
Reeling
A lot of the buyers of these forward cattle are reeling from a 60c/kg drop in beef prices over the last two months, so confidence isn’t flying high in finishing circles at the moment.
Taking a look at this week’s MartBids analysis, bullocks took the biggest hit in this week’s trading, with bullocks in the 400kg to 500kg weight category seeing a reduction of 17c/kg or over €70/head in the last week.
Lighter bullocks
Lighter bullocks under 400kg were also back to a similar extent across all quality categories.
Heavier bullocks over 600kg were also back, but not to the same extent, with average bullocks back 4c/kg last week to €2.46/kg.
Heifers are also back, but, again, not to the same extent as bullocks.
Heifers in the 400kg to 500kg weight category were back 2c to 4c/kg, with heavier heifers holding steady at €2.60/kg to €2.80/kg.
Top-end weanling bulls in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket came in at €3.30/kg, with top-end heifers in the 300kg to 400kg weight bracket coming in at €3.07/kg this week.
