Sheep mart watch: sales drawing to close on strong note

The majority of mart sales will conclude this week, with just a few special breeding sales held over the Christmas period.

Sales are ending the year on a positive note, with many marts reporting higher entries as producers struggling to negotiate the higher prices with agents continue to take advantage of a vibrant live trade.

The general run of prices for good-quality lowland lambs weighing 50kg and upwards continues at a range of €195 to €208/head, with select lots of excellent-quality and very heavy lambs selling upwards of €210 to €215/head.

Lambs weighing 48kg to 49kg are trading anywhere from €190 to over €200/head, depending on quality and potential killout. Lambs weighing 45kg to 46kg are trading in a wider differential from the mid-€160s to in excess of €180/head.

Store lambs are also finishing the year strongly, with the general run of lambs ranging from €3.60/kg to €3.85/kg for good-quality lowland stores and rising to €4/kg and higher for the best-quality lots.

Crossbred types and hill lambs are selling anywhere from €3/kg to €4/kg, depending on weight and lamb quality.

When marts look back on 2024, it will be seen as a largely positive year, but there have also been low points. Some marts saw their throughput of lambs boosted by more competition in sales and returns at many points of the year outshining factory returns.

But other marts also witnessed lower numbers passing through sales yard due to tighter numbers. This also spilled over to hogget sales and while returns were very positive, throughput was significantly down for many marts.

This was compensated in some marts by higher cull ewe entries, but, again, this varied considerably.

The cull ewe trade also finished the year strongly, with agents and buyers purchasing for live export or niche market demand locking horns.

Top-quality ewes averaged €2.10/kg to €2.30/kg in the last, week with some selling up to €2.50/kg and higher. Plainer-quality lots sold from €1.60/kg to €1.80/kg, with hill ewes and ewes lacking significant flesh back to €1/kg.