As we head into the last few sales before the Christmas break, mart managers are reporting another surge in demand for more forward stock.

While stock had levelled slightly in the past month, the increase in beef price is being seen ringside also.

Factories continue their eagerness for cattle and, with it, sellers are able to sell harder, both at home and at marts.

The biggest beneficiary of this improvement is sellers with heifers weighing 600kg-plus.

Average prices for this category of stock rose by 5c/kg on the week to rest at €2.39/kg.

The top third of stock in this category saw an even bigger lift, with prices up 8c/kg on the week. This resulted in average price settling at an impressive €2.66/kg.

At this price, a 600kg heifer in the top third of quality is averaging just shy of €1,600, with much higher on offer for the real top-end lots.

At this price, sellers would need to be receiving a factory price of €4.84/kg to break even with mart levels.

Looking to short-keep lots, we can see these are holding pretty firm across heifers and steers

While steers didn’t see as much change, again the better-quality lots were most in demand.

Average price for steers weighing 600kg-plus in the top third of lots sold increased by 2c/kg this week. This means that steer average in comparison with heifer average is still 10c/kg behind.

Looking to short-keep lots, we can see these are holding pretty firm across heifers and steers.

Heifers are still ahead on prices, but not as much as with the heavier stock.

Heifers weighing 500kg to 600kg saw average this week rest at €2.31/kg, up 6c on that of steers. For better-quality lots, this difference drops to 4c/kg.

Suitable for finish

Stores weighing 400kg to 500kg and suitable to finish off grass next summer are holding very strong.

On average, heifers in this bracket rose by 8c/kg to rest at €2.28/kg. This rise was as significant in the steers this week, so prices rested at €2.22/kg.

For better-quality lots, a substantial increase of 10c/kg was seen for heifers.

Despite this, better-quality steer lots remain in higher demand, resulting in an average price 4c/kg higher than the heifers, at €2.60/kg.

The biggest change on the week was for light steers sub-400kg

That said, the lesser lots of heifers are substantially up on their steer comrades, a difference of 15c/kg.

This is largely down to more first-cross dairy beef male lots compared with females.

The biggest change on the week was for light steers sub-400kg. Across the quality types, prices were up 15c/kg on last week’s levels. While numbers of this type of stock are decreasing, such a lift was unforeseen.

Weanlings

Prices for heifers generally saw a lift and remain near enough on par with bull weanling prices for weights greater than 300kg. For weights lighter then 300kg, prices were substantially higher for heifers over bulls.

If we look at weanling heifers from 200kg to 300kg, we can see a price difference of 40c/kg on bulls of the same weight.

This is again largely down to a lot more dairy beef lots for males compared with females.

If we look at the lower end of bulls in the same weight category, we see average prices drop back to €1.43/kg compared with €2.10/kg for heifers.