The weanling trade is at record levels, with prices taking another big jump last week on the back of big demand from grass buyers, feeders and a few exporters starting to ramp up activity for jobs on the continent.

Taking a look at this week’s MartBids analysis table, we see that the top third of cattle had a super week’s trading in marts.

For a second week in a row, it’s almost all green arrows across all categories of stock, which means almost all categories of stock saw price increases last week.

Some of the biggest jumps came in the weanling section, with the top third of heifers in the 300kg to 400kg bracket hitting €3.33/kg last week, a rise of 17c/kg compared with the previous week.

Heavier heifers in the 400kg to 450kg bracket also saw a big jump last week to €3.11/kg.

What’s driving the weanling heifer trade? It’s probably a combination of a couple of things at the moment.

Factories are really under pressure for finished cattle for next week and for the next few months. They have instructed their larger feedlot clients to purchase heavier cattle for a June and July finish.

Driving the trade

This has really driven on the price of these heavier cattle in marts, with some feedlots even dropping down as far as 400kg in terms of purchasing weight, as these have been a little easier to buy.

This has also allowed factory agents to concentrate on the heavier cattle for immediate slaughter.

The fact that the feedlot feeders have dropped back into the traditional grass buying market has driven the trade for these lighter grass cattle.

Because factory feeders are around the store ring buying all around them, this has made the traditional 400kg to 500kg grass buyer drop back into the 300kg to 400kg bracket for grass cattle.

Strong position

Throw into all this the fact that finished cattle are coming into somewhere between €2,000 and €3,000 per head at the moment, this leaves a cattle buyer in a strong position when they are back around the ring looking to replace the cattle that have been sold.

Factory agents continue to hoover up anything over 600kg, with the average price for these heavy cattle coming in at €3.31/kg this week. That’s the equivalent of a beef price of €6/kg.

A number of wholesale buyers are really lighting up the dry cow trade, with as far as €3.30/kg paid for heavy well-fleshed cows in marts this week.

Fleshed Frieisan cows are also a solid trade, with €2.20/kg to €2.50/kg being paid for cows around the 600kg bracket.

More numbers

The only thing that could bring out more numbers is grass supplies, especially in the northwest.

Heavy rain has delayed silage cutting for the last week and this is leaving big pressure on grass supplies on grazing ground where a lighter application of fertiliser went out this spring.

Some mart managers are reporting a few bigger sales than normal over the last week. Next weekend’s forecasted good weather will likely correct this.