Corrin Mart manager Sean Leahy said “trade was a flyer” after Tuesday’s general sale in Fermoy.

In what was a slightly smaller sale, featuring 500 cattle and 400 calves, Sean said that “we knew numbers would be a small bit back with the weather, but we also thought prices might be under pressure too. That was anything but the case.”

A full clearance was achieved, with a notably strong trade for store cattle, particularly heifers.

Calves

For the 350 bull calves and 50 heifer calves on offer, prices were a shade back for the week, but still strong.

Sean said: “There are definitely more farmers to buy calves this year than there was last year.” Exporters are also fairly active, he said.

Friesian bull calves were selling for between €20/head and €140/head, with better types securing over the €100 mark and a small number of strong Friesians making over €200/head.

Friesian calves out of Jersey cows were small money, ranging from €2/head to below €20/head.

Angus-cross males ranged from €140 to €270 per head.

On to the female calves and Angus-crosses sold from €40 to €170 per head. Herefords were higher money, but were also stronger types and they ranged from €180/head to €192/head.

Bullocks

In the bullock ring, Sean said that Friesian store cattle were an exceptionally strong trade.

Furthermore, all type of Angus stores – male and female – were in very high demand among exporters.

Looking at MartBids data, 400kg to 500kg bullocks sold to an average price of €2.06/kg. Friesians ranged from €1.45/kg to €1.75/kg, while dairy-beef-crosses ran from €1.85/kg to €2.03/kg.

Continentals, bolstered by an entry of nearly 30 high-quality Charolais- and Limousin-crosses, were very firm, with prices starting at €2.05/kg running to a top of €2.55/kg for a pen of four 12-month-old 428kg Charolais-crosses (€1,090/head).

From 500kg to 600kg, the sale average was €1.84/kg. Friesians started at €1.60/kg and climbed to €1.80/kg. A smaller offering of dairy-beef-crosses ranged from €1.90/kg to €2.05/kg, with Angus at the upper end of this scale.

Heavy bullocks from 600kg and over averaged €1.80/kg, with better quality securing 10c/kg above the average to a top price of €2.02/kg.

Heifers

Lighter store heifers weighing between 400kg and 500kg sold to an average price of €1.98/kg. Quality Angus, Herefords or continentals consistently made over €2.10/kg and ran to a top of €2.30/kg. Plainer lots were back to below €1.80/kg.

Heavier 500kg to 600kg stores averaged €1.89/kg, with quality lots making over €2/kg.

Cows

Just under 100 cows were unchanged for the week, averaging €1.30/kg. On a per-head basis, Friesians sold for €500 to €1,000 or €1/kg for poor types up to €270 with the weight for better-grading, better-fleshed lots.

Corrin Mart

Commission is €9/head to the buyer. The seller is subject to an entry fee of €2.50 plus 1.5% commission, with a minimum of €9.50/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.