It was another steady week in Kilkenny Mart, with numbers holding firm on the same day last week.

There were 60 pens of bullocks and 40 pens of heifers on offer and the sale achieved a clearance of almost 95%.

As always, quality lots were in high demand and prices were generally up across the board.

In general, heifers were a decent trade, with 350kg to 400kg animals averaging €2.80/kg.

The top-end Charolais and Limousin lots in this section averaged north of €3.15/kg.

Meanwhile, the traditional-bred heifers in the same weight range fell slightly short of this, but still averaged quite high at €2.60/kg.

Heifers from 400kg to 500kg were a similar trade, with the tops averaging €3.10/kg, in contrast with the plainer types that averaged just below €2.50/kg.

Heifers from 500kg to 600kg also saw an increase of about 5c/kg this week and the heavy heifers weighing over 600kg ranged from €2.85/kg to €3.20/kg.

Bullocks

In the bullock ring, things were fairly on par with the week previous, albeit the lesser-quality bullocks across the board were back up to 15c/kg in some cases.

Bullocks from 400kg to 500kg met the strongest trade, selling from €2.35/kg up to €3.60/kg for the better-conformed suckler-bred continental lots.