Just under 400 cattle went through Thurles Mart on Wednesday afternoon for its weekly weanling sale.

Speaking to mart manager Martin Ryan after the sale, he said: “Numbers were a good bit back compared to last week, but trade was still quite good. We cleared about 90%.”

All in all, 212 out of 231 bull weanlings were sold, while just 16 heifers out of 116 had to return home.

Delving deeper into the trade, Ryan highlighted an issue which has been a common trend throughout the country this back end: “Heavy bulls are a very hard sell. Once you go over 420kg, it’s a battle to secure over €2/kg.

“It’s hard to make sense of it when you see plenty of 330kg calves making over €800.”

After starting off the autumn in a busy fashion, activity from the shippers has gone dead at present according to Ryan.

"It's 99% farmers buying around the ring at the moment.”

Bulls

Table 1 gives a breakdown of bull weanling prices on the day. Ryan said the quality of animals in the yard was undeniably lesser than what it was earlier in the autumn.

From 200kg to 300kg, the sale average was €1.65/kg, but most of this category were dairy weanlings, which pulled the average down.

Spring-born Friesians made from €1.35/kg to €1.60/kg, while dairy beef breeds made from €1.65/kg to €1.90/kg.

Continentals in the 200kg to 300kg weight bracket started at €1.95/kg and topped at €2.82/kg for a pen of three excellent Limousin-cross, April- and May-born weanlings weighing 218kg (€615/head).

From 300kg to 400kg, the sale average was €2.01/kg but quality lots secured over €2.40/kg consistently.

Top price in this weight category went to a 310kg Limousin-cross weanling born in April, which sold for €840 (€2.71/kg).

Another notable price was €840 for a pen of eight spring-born Charolais crosses (€2.39/kg).

Heavy bull weanlings over 400kg averaged just over €2.05/kg.

Heifers

Light weanling heifers from 100kg to 200kg, which were mainly dairy breeds, averaged €2.05/kg. Table 2 gives a full breakdown of heifer prices.

From 200kg to 300kg, the average for weanling heifers was €2/kg while better-quality lots sold for up to and over €2.35/kg.

Heavier heifers, weighing 300kg to 400kg averaged €1.97/kg, with better-quality lots securing 30c-50c/kg more.

Mid-Tipperary Mart

To the seller, commission rates for bullocks, heifers, cows and weanlings are €10/head for singles and €9/head for multiples, plus 0.05%.

To the buyer, commission is €10/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.