Camera at the Mart: red hot trade for weanling bulls in Skibbereen

If you walked into Skibbereen Mart for last Friday’s sale, you’d feel like double checking your calendar.

With the weanlings making up half of the cattle present you’d be forgiven for thinking it was an autumn sale instead of January. Appetite for weanlings was strong and there was over 300 on offer.

Across the board, weanling bulls sold from €320 to €1,140 with their weight. On an odd occasion, suckler weanling bulls dropped below €3/kg, but this was rare.

A good gauge of trade was over a dozen R grading bulls from one farm that ended up averaging €3.34/kg.

Previously, when demand was there for the Turkish market, 280kg to 330kg was the weight range, but this time out there appears to be demand for that heavier weanling bull too.

Either that or there are some looking at putting those heavier bulls into an under-16-month system now in order to target the May and June beef trade.

Midland buyers were present and active for weanling heifers and they made from €320 up to €810 over the €/kg.

Speaking after the sale, mart manager Keith Mullaney was happy with how the sale went.

“Bulls were a super trade and export demand drove it,” he said. “Exporters blew things out of the water for the type they were looking for. They were all very anxious to get stock for the Turkish market and there was strong farmer activity too. Given how well it went, we’ll be looking to run a similar sale in February.”

Appointed to the role in December, Mullaney reported serious demand for forward stores and cows.

“Trade for cows was hot enough too. There seems to be really good appetite for them at the moment. We had 120 go through the ring this week.”

Forward cows were the stand-out performers in a sale which saw €105 with the weight available at the lower end, while a 920kg Charolais cow that made €1,500 with her weight was the highest-priced cow sold. A selection of in-calf suckler cows and heifers were available from €1,400 up to €2,020.