Mart sales holding well despite drop in numbers

While the number of livestock being sold in Carnaross Mart has dropped slightly over the last week it isn’t impacting the prices being fetched, according to mart manager Padraig McIlroy.

“Sales haven’t been as big this week, compared to other weeks. Numbers are slightly back, but trade is holding up well.”

Padraig says this is largely due to farmers taking advantage of the good weather.

“A lot of people haven’t had time to come to the mart over the past few weeks. They are busy making silage and working on the land. It’s hard for them to do everything.

“Cattle prices are holding up well. Limousin bulls on Monday night weighing 650kg made €2,200. That works out at more than €3.40/kg which is well above the €3/kg that farmers would have previously looked for.

“We sold culled cows weighing 1,025kg for €2,800 recently.”

Purchasers from the North remain an important factor on the demand side.

“There is a lot of interest from factories who are helping to drive trade, but there is a good mixture from farmers as well as buyers from the North, with over 150 cattle buyers from Northern Ireland last week. It was quiet for the last while in this regard, but it’s picking up again.”

He said that while Carnaross deals mostly in the beef trade, there are regular dairy sales.

“We deal primarily in beef animals. We don’t have a large number of dairy animals apart from a couple of sales a month. Northern buyers are driving the dairy sales and they’re not impacted as much by milk prices.”

He noted the dairy sales today (Wednesday) and Friday with 120 cows scheduled for each.

“The Wednesday sale is a pedigree sale, from a farmer who has 700-800 cows and sells 100 every year.

“The one on Friday is a clearance sale. There are a lot of clearance sales of farmers getting out of milk, but for everyone getting out of dairy farming, there are two or three getting into the industry. It’s like a revolving door.”

Sheep sales have followed a similar trend to cattle sales, both in terms of quantity and quality.

While conditions have improved dramatically over the past few weeks with rain and cold spells giving way to lengthy periods of sunshine and blue skies, over the last few years the weather has followed a similar pattern leading to a drought and massive drop-off in grass growth. Padraig says he isn’t worried about the potential negative impact this could have on the market.

“It could have an impact on sales, but heavier beef cattle are more in demand than anything at the minute, so grass availability shouldn’t have any impact on sales. They’re an end-of-line product, so they don’t eat much grass.”

Elsewhere in Dowra Mart trade remains strong on the sheep front with a big sale again this week with a top price of €190 for six Ewe Hoggets. Ten Spring Lambs weighing 54kg sold for €181.50 while 33 Spring Lambs weighing 48kg Sold for €176. One ewe with a single lamb at foot sold for €272, according to a spokesperson from the mart.

They said “Last week there were just under 550 cattle sold. Trade was strong with some very strong prices for the heavy cattle, which increased on previous weeks.”

Regarding sales, dry cows reached €2,440 for a charolais cross cow weighing 840kg while a charolais stock bull sold for €3,100. A light charolais cross bullock weighing 230kg sold for €960 while a charolais cross heifer weighing 710kg sold for €2,280.