The Irish Farmers Journal is delighted to welcome Clogher Valley Livestock Producers as the latest mart to install Martbids, the online bidding app.

The mart, situated on the edge of Clogher village in Tyrone, is one of the leading livestock sales venues in Northern Ireland.

Heifers, bullocks, dry cows and suck calves are sold on Saturdays, weanlings are sold on Wednesdays and sheep are sold on Thursdays.

We had a look at a number of systems and felt that the Martbids system offered us the most opportunity for development

Commenting on the partnership, Clogher Valley Livestock Producers manager Nicholson Boyd said: “We are delighted to launch Martbids in our mart this week.

"We had a look at a number of systems and felt that the Martbids system offered us the most opportunity for development in the future.

"We currently have a lot of online sales taking place and we think it’s something that is here to stay and it’s an area we would like to build on for the future,” Nicholson added.

“We have lots of farmers who want to stay ringside and buy cattle as they enter the ring and maintaining that is important to us, but we have other customers who have moved to online bidding because it suits their business and we want to help them as much as we can.

Feedback

"Our feedback from customers is that the catalogue function on the Martbids app is an especially useful tool and being able to filter animals in advance of a sale that are specific to a buyer's requirements is helpful to our buyers.”

Last Saturday’s trade was a lively one, with a great trade for heavy finished cattle and cull cows.

Factory agents were very active for finished cattle and there was also lots of appetite around the store rings.

Store cattle are probably trading €100 to €200/head higher than in the south and the trade is reflective for good prices being realised from finished cattle at the moment north of the border.

Data

LMC data shows that good-quality beef cows were averaging 168p/kg (€1.98/kg) across marts in Northern Ireland for the week ending 7 November.

Well-fleshed dairy cows were averaging 121p/kg to 131p/kg (€1.42/kg to €1.54/kg).

Good-quality finished continental bullocks were averaging 231p/kg (€2.72/kg), while good-quality finished heifers were hitting 223p/kg (€2.63/kg).

Store cattle were generally making around the 220p/kg (€2.59/kg) mark.

Clogher Mart holds its next cattle sale on Saturday 14 November starting at 10.30am. Watch the sale live on www.martbids.ie.

In pictures

This 15-month-old Aberdeen Angus bullock weighed 500kg and sold for 204p/kg (€2.40/kg).

This 18-month-old red Aberdeen Angus weighed 480kg and sold for 200p/kg £960 (€2.35/kg).

This 27-month-old Aberdeen Angus bullock weighed 610kg and sold for 190p/kg or £1,160 (€2.24/kg).

This 20-month-old Freisian bullcok weighed 520kg and sold for 202p/kg £1,055 (€2.38/kg).

This March-2017-born Friesian bullock weighed 580kg and sold for 132p/kg or £765 (€1.56/kg).

This October 2020-born Holstein Friesian bull calf sold for £40 (€47).

This October 2020-born Hereford bull calf was sold for £365 (€430).

These two October 2020-born Aberdeen Angus heifer calves sold for £200 each (€235/head).

This March 2017-born Hereford bullock weighed 720kg and sold for 177p/kg or £1,274 (€2.08/kg).

This November 2015-born Belgian Blue dry cow weighed 680kg and sold for 152p/kg or £1,033 (€1.79/kg).

This 2015-born pedigree Charolais cow weighed 980kg and sold for 194p/kg or £1,901 (€2.28/kg).

This 2013-born pedigree Charolais cow weighed 930kg and sold for 190p/kg or £1,767 (€2.24/kg).