The sale yard in Ennis was almost at capacity on Thursday morning with over 1,200 cattle booked in for the weekly drystock sale. Weanlings are sold on Tuesdays.

With land conditions becoming increasingly challenging, a number of marts around the country have witnessed higher entries over the last 10 days. Selling continued until 5.30pm on the day.

Quality cattle are still very dominant in the ring and are securing strong prices

Mart manager Martin McNamara said: “We were slightly worried about how the trade might go given such a large number of cattle but we were quite pleased by the end of the day. The trade was pretty firm.

“Quality cattle are still very dominant in the ring and are securing strong prices. Plainer lots are struggling money-wise but are still being sold.”

Across the board, sellers are benefiting from cattle weighing heavier after the good spring and summer – they’re weighing about “30kg heavier than last year”, according to McNamara.

Bullocks

McNamara said “bullocks were a good steady trade”.

He said: “Nice-quality bullocks, 530kg to 600kg, born in 2018 were in strong demand.” He added that “two-and-a-half year old cattle were almost impossible to get across the €2/kg mark”.

Looking at the overall figures, those from 400kg to 500kg sold for an average price of €1.97/kg. Traditional breeds sold for €1.70/kg to €1.95/kg, while continentals ranged from €2/kg up to a top price of €2.55/kg.

From 500-600kg, the average was again €1.97/kg. Traditional breeds ranged from €1.50/kg to €1.75/kg. Continentals depended on quality. They started at €1.80/kg for plain cattle, good-quality lots made €2.20/kg upwards and the top price was €2.35/kg.

Bullocks over 600kg averaged €1.77/kg, while good-quality lots were selling for €600 with the weight.

Heifers

On the heifers, McNamara said good-quality lots were doing well in the ring, while plainer types were cheap but were being sold.

Store heifers from 400kg to 500kg averaged €1.90/kg for the sale. Good-quality lots in this weight category made €2.15/kg regularly up to a top price of €2.36/kg.

Martin McNamara demonstrates Martbids app to local Farmer John O'Dea, Bell Harbour, Co Clare.

\ David Ruffles

From 500kg to 600kg, the average was €1.75/kg, while quality made €2.10/kg and upwards. Top price here was €1,225 for a 525kg, 19-month-old Charolais-cross heifer (€2.33/kg).

Cows

The sale featured a large entry of 235 cull cows, the vast majority of which were of the beef variety. “We have had no real numbers of dairy cows coming in yet,” McNamara said.

Good-quality cows, R grading with a bit of flesh, made €1.70/kg on average. The sale-topper was sold for €1.90/kg. Plainer suckler types were €1.50/kg in the main, while the few dairy cows on offer sold for €1/kg upwards.

Ennis mart

Commission rates are €9.48 to the buyer, with the seller subject to a €2 booking fee plus 1.5% commission up to a maximum of €12.

Ennis Mart holds a general cattle sale of bulls, bullocks, heifers and dry cows on Thursdays and a weanling, suckler cow and calf sale every Tuesday.

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.

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