After sliding factory and store cattle prices for several weeks, farmers and finishers will breathe a sigh of relief as a stabilisation of quotes from factories seems to have stemmed the sliding mart prices.
With more settled weather, farmers are under less pressure to get stock away, which has seen up to 10% of animals brought home from marts.
In the bullock ring, the only class of bullock that saw a slide in price this week was top-quality lots between 400kg and 500kg, with a drop of 6c/kg on last week, equating to a ring price of €2.81/kg.
Top-quality bullocks weighing 500kg to 600kg jumped by 13c/kg to €2.82/kg, while average-quality lots above 600kg were up 4c/kg to €2.45/kg.
In the heifer ring, the greatest jump in price was for top-end finished heifers over 600kg, with a 14c/kg rise to €2.80/kg.
Average and poor-quality lots in this weight range slid by 30c/kg and 23c/kg respectively.
The majority of heifers coming into marts at the moment are in the 400kg to 500kg weight bracket, with all qualities of heifer seeing a price increase of 4c to 6c/kg on last week.
Weanlings
Weanlings have performed well for the most part this week, with most quality and weight types up in price.
Bull weanlings in the 300kg to 400kg bracket - the most common weight class - are the only anomaly, with a fall of 16c/kg on average-quality lots, bringing the price back to €2.86/kg.
Heifer weanlings in this weight band are up anywhere between 9c/kg and 16c/kg on last week, with top-quality heifer weanlings now trading at €3.16/kg.
Top-quality heifers weighing 200kg to 300kg saw the strongest increase of 24c/kg to give an average of €3.40/kg.
