The first sale of 2019 in Dowra Mart, Co Leitrim, saw variable trade, with a firm trade for forward store heifers and sheep, while young bulls met a stickier market.

The selection of heifers on offer included some top-quality continental and breeding types, which mart manager Terry McGovern says helped to generate a livelier trade.

The best trade was for forward types suitable for a short finishing period, with R and U grading lots and breeding types weighing 450kg upwards selling on average from €2.10/kg to €2.25/kg. A selection of superior-quality lots sold to a top of €2.43/kg.

O grading heifers, including Angus- and Hereford-crosses, averaged €1.90/kg to €2.05/kg.

The trade for bulls was described as being stickier, with demand for good-quality bulls softened by finishers facing difficulties in getting bulls booked in for slaughter and slower to replenish numbers.

Good-quality R+ and U grading bulls weighing 300kg to 380kg sold on average from €2.20/kg to €2.40/kg, with plainer-quality lots selling back to €2/kg to €2.10/kg.

Slaughter-fit cows sold on average from €1.40/kg to €1.55/kg, while better-conformed R+ / U grading cows capable of delivering a heavy carcase sold to €1.65/kg. Plainer-quality cows sold from €1.30/kg upwards.

Sheep sales increased by €3 to €5 per head on pre-Christmas levels for an entry of 400.

Heavy fleshed lambs weighing 48kg to 54kg sold from €108 to a top of €119.

Terry said he could have sold twice the number of stores, with favourable grazing conditions and lambs coming fit for slaughter faster underpinning higher demand. Stores traded from €2.20/kg upwards for crossbred types and as high as €2.40/kg to €2.50/kg for tight-wooled lambs.

Terry said 2019 will be a critical year for farmers, with an unfavourable Brexit outcome having the capacity to cause irreversible damage.

Even with a positive Brexit deal, change is required: “Suckler farming is keeping local businesses in Leitrim, including our mart, alive, but it is getting harder to keep farms afloat and change is needed in the form of higher farmgate prices or support for suckler herds. If we don’t see this, rural Ireland will greatly suffer.”

Commission rates for cattle are €9 to the buyer and 2% to the seller.