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The main camera at the mart feature is from last Friday’s special suckler clearance sale at Tullow Mart.
The sale saw an entry of close to 50 cows, made up of 42 cows with calves at foot and the remainder in-calf cows and the stock bull.
Mart manager Eric Driver said that the trade was exceptionally strong, with average sale prices beating expectations.
One key driver of prices was the quality of the cows on offer and the quality of calves.
Although star ratings were available on the sale catalogue, buyers used a combination of figures and visual assessment when sourcing.
In several cases, the quality of cow and calf lots was the determiner of price more so than star rating.
Of the cows with calves at foot, the average price paid on the day was a very strong €2,100, with prices topping out at €2,500 for what buyers thought was the best cow and calf outfit.
In terms of lower prices, the farmer was very reluctant to let any of these top-quality cow and calf teams go for less than €2,000 and, as a result, only very few went below that mark.
There were a few in-calf cows on offer which were calving later in June and July. These in-calf cows sold for around €1,500 each, a very respectable price for a late-calving cow.
The stock bull was also sold. He was a four-year-old top-quality Limousin with five stars all round. Bidding ended at €3,000 for him.
Eric said that the cattle trade continues to be very strong, backed by a positive beef trade. Numbers in March through the mart were a little lower than anticipated, but April saw a good flow of cattle and so far June has been on par with last year.
The sheep trade on Tuesday continued to be very strong. Eric said that despite attempts by factories to pull prices, prices paid at the mart sale were very strong, with heavy butcher lambs from 48kg to 52kg making up to €143/head.
The majority of factory lambs sold from €115 to €125/head. However, Eric said that the flow of fleshed lambs passing through the mart has been slightly slower than last year.
Commission rates for suckler clearance sales are €20 to €25/head to the buyer with sellers commission arranged pre-sale.
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