It has been a positive week in the country’s marts, with factory agents being welcomed back ringside with open arms at some of the bigger sales.

Mart managers in the west reported some very small sales, with farmers concentrating on hay and GLAS participants knocking traditional meadows to get this year’s silage into the yard.

Factories have given the nod to some of the big buyers to nestle in around the mart ring again to source stock. Factories had been noticeably quiet over the last two to three weeks with most factories pulling back on mart activity.

One heifer buyer this week remarked: “It’s shocking hard to buy anything you like. It’s easy buy the plainer stock at the moment but the good one is still very hard bought”

Looking at this week’s MartBids analysis table, we see a pretty steady ship in terms of little movement across most stock categories and weights.

Very light bull weanlings were easier bought this week while heavy bull weanlings continue to perform very well.

Bull weanlings over 450kg hit €3.06/kg this week, which is a very strong trade for big weights.

Big bull finishers continue to be very active around rings, with a lot of these heavy weanlings going in for a short sharp finish for later this year.

Heavy plainer bulls also saw a lift, rising to €2.70/kg.

In the weanling heifer category it was another solid week’s trading.

The top third of heifer weanlings in the 400-450kg category hit a massive €3.32/kg this week.

This is a real positive message for autumn-calving herds as many of these farmers will be selling weanlings in the next four to six weeks. Average weanling heifers are also a solid trade, ranging in price from €2.68/kg to €2.72/kg.

In the older heifer and bullock categories it was the heaviest weights that fared out best this week.

Heavy bullocks saw an 8c/kg increase, predominantly being driven by factory agents working both ringside and online.

Bullocks in the 600kg+ category hit €2.93/kg while average-quality bullocks came in at €2.62/kg.

Hereford and Angus bullocks in the 400-500kg brackets are being bought from €2.20/kg to €2.50/kg depending on quality and flesh cover.

Heifers were a similar trade to last week, with heavy heifers ranging in price from €2.44/kg for plainer dairy beef crosses to €2.96/kg for the top-end continental suckler stock. Lighter grazing heifers in the 400-500kg bracket are working off €2.20-€2.70/kg depending on quality.

Live exports

Live exports continue to perform very well, with total cattle exports in 2022 running 12% ahead of 2021 levels at 211,032 head for the first six months of 2022.

Calf exporters are still very active ,with over 1,000 calves/week moving out of the country in the last few weeks.

Calf exports for the first six months of the year stand at 163,409 head, a 20% increase on 2021 levels.

The Netherlands has been the stand-out market for calves this year, with almost 95,000 calves exported to the region in the first six months of 2022.

Meath-based exporter Viastar is sourcing light weanlings for a new contract to Egypt.