Last week’s sheep sale held in Loughrea Mart on Thursday witnessed a steady trade, despite fears prices were coming under pressure.

Manager Jimmy Cooney said that a tightness in supplies benefitted sellers, with factory agents and butcher buyers keen to get numbers resulting in prices equalling previous week’s levels.

The best trade was for well-fleshed lambs, with top prices of €110 for 43kg lambs, €115 for 45kg lots and €120 for a pen of well-fleshed 47kg lambs. There was a differential of €5 to €7 lower for lambs of comparable weights but lacking flesh.

Heavy fleshed lambs weighing in excess of 50kg sold on average from €118 to €125, with the top-quality lambs pictured above achieving the top price of €127.

Lighter lambs weighing 40kg to 42kg sold from €100 to €105, with small numbers either side of this range. There was only a couple of pens of lighter lambs offered, with 39.5kg store lambs selling for €92. Jimmy said that some store lamb sellers were slow to present lambs until grass supplies recover.

The cull ewe trade has firmed on the back of tighter supplies in recent weeks. Good fleshed lowland ewes sold from €90 to €115 on average, with the best-quality lots rising to €125. Lighter lots lacking flesh sold from €60 to €80.