Close to 600 animals went under the hammer in Roscrea on Friday. Around 150 heifers and over 250 bullocks featured.

Bullocks

Table 1 gives a full breakdown of bullock prices.

Lighter 350kg to 400kg store bullocks averaged €1.84/kg for the sale.

Friesian lots started at just under €1.15/kg and ran up to €1.55/kg for better conformation lots.

Better-quality Hereford and Angus dairy-crosses made up to €2/kg, while continentals ranged from €2.20/kg up to €2.50/kg.

Moving up the weights, 400kg to 500kg stores made €1.88/kg on average.

Dairy animals made from €1.20/kg to €1.60/kg, with Jersey-crosses at the bottom of the pile under Friesians.

A small offering of Angus and Herefords made from €1.70/kg to €1.80/kg.

Continentals then kicked in at €1.80/kg up to a top price of €2.60/kg.

More forward stores from 500kg to 600kg averaged €1.92/kg. That’s a rise of 10c/kg from last week’s sale.

Friesians put a floor under the trade at €1.40/kg and went up to €1.50/kg. Angus and Hereford crosses ranged from €1.50/kg to €1.75/kg.

Plainer continentals started at €1.80/kg and, as quality improved, so did the price and it topped out at €2.60/kg.

Heavy bullocks averaged €1.89/kg with the better quality finding their way up to €2.10/kg.

Store heifers

There was a strong entry of light store heifers on the day. Table 2 gives the breakdown of prices.

Heifers from 350kg to 400kg made €1.90/kg on average. Better-quality lots commanded a price closer to and above €2.15/kg, while plainer dairy types settled for around €1.70/kg regularly.

Heavier stores from 400kg to 500kg sold for an average price of €1.91/kg.

Again, €2.10 was the average price for quality and some made over €2.20/kg.

Cows

A small number of cull cows were sold on the day. Dairy lots made €1.05/kg to €1.10/kg, or €600 to €700 per head.

Continental cows ranged from €1.40/kg up to €1.80/kg for good-grading young cows. This equates to a price of €1,000 to €1,700 per head.

Analysis for this report was generated from the MartBids app. MartBids is a collaboration between the Irish Farmers Journal and livestock marts. The app is available for download on iPhone or Android on the App Store or Google Play. With this app, all of the information that is displayed on the mart board is now available on your smartphone, long before the animal enters the sales ring.