Cattle numbers in marts continue to tighten across the country, with lower numbers coming out again this week.

The stop-start nature to the spring weather has meant that cattle have come out to marts a lot more gradually this spring.

This now means there will be no flood of grass cattle coming to mart rings over the next few weeks.

A combination of very strong autumn sales driven by a lack of appetite to feed store cattle meal over winter has meant spring sales have been smaller than other years.

The good trade for weanlings since last autumn has meant a lot of weanlings were also shifted before the winter feeding period.

Taking a look at this week’s MartBids analysis table, we see the weanling trade has seen a lift this week, with both bulls and heifers seeing an increase in price from the previous week’s trading.

Bull calves in the 400kg to 450kg bracket saw the biggest increase, with a number of larger feeders getting the nod this week to fill up again on the back of reduced numbers in the next few months.

Top-quality weanlings in this weight bracket moved up by 31c/kg this week.

Average-quality calves in the 400kg to 450kg bracket also saw a lift of 26c/kg.

Top-quality calves in the most popular 300kg to 400kg category saw a lift of 6c/kg on last week’s trading.

Heifer weanlings also saw positive movement, with top-quality heifer calves in the 300kg to 400kg bracket moving up by 18c/kg compared with last week.

Heavier heifers in the 400kg to 450kg bracket moved up to €3.40/kg – an increase of 5c/kg on last week.

Average heifers were also up across the board to the tune of 12c to 13c/kg.

Bullock rings

In the bullock rings, there was also a more positive feel to the trade this week, with grass bullocks in the 400kg to 500kg category up by 4c to 6c/kg across all grades of quality.

Heavy bullocks in the 600kg+ category were the only cattle that didn’t see a positive change on last week.

Heifers weren’t as hot as bullocks this week, with the top quality 400kg to 500kg heifer coming in at €3.11/kg, similar to last week’s price.

Live export trade

The live export trade continues to perform well, although the latest Bord Bia figures show that live exports are down 3% so far in 2023 when compared with the same period in 2022.

During the week ending 23 April 2023, there were 16,761 cattle exported out of the country, which takes cattle exports for the year to date to 155,110.

The Netherlands, Spain and Italy have continued to be the most important markets for Irish calves.

The trading of older categories of cattle has generally been more subdued in recent weeks, with a strong liveweight trade and tighter cattle supplies impacting the availability of cattle for export.

The Turkish market still looks very promising and Irish exporters are also currently assembling loads of cattle for export to other Middle East countries in the next month.

The general picture for the live export trade looks positive with tightening numbers across Europe.