Around 350 cattle, including over 170 bullocks and 60 weanling bullocks, were sold at Monday’s general sale in Thurles Mart.

Bullocks

From 400kg to 500kg, the sale average was €2.01/kg, with a good mix of dairy-beef and continental cattle on offer. A handful of Friesian lots set the base line at €1.70/kg and these ran to €1.80/kg.

Moving on, dairy-beef crosses of the Angus and Hereford variety ranged from €1.80/kg up to a strong €2.05/kg for quality lots.

Continentals started at €1.95/kg, but good quality was making over €2.15/kg. An April 2018-born Limousin-cross weighing 485kg topped the prices at €1,150 or €2.37/kg.

Bullocks weighing 500kg to 600kg were back for the week to €1.69/kg, but a very high number of Friesian lots pulled down the average. These started at €1.30/kg and ran up as high as €1.75/kg for the better-quality animal.

Dairy-beef bullocks went from €1.85/kg to just shy of €2/kg, while continentals started at a similar bottom-range price and topped at €2.10/kg.

Light bullocks under 400kg averaged €2.07/kg, while heavy cattle weighing 600kg-plus were averaging €1.73/kg.

Weanling bulls

Around 60 weanling bullocks approaching their first birthday were sold.

From 200kg to 300kg, the average was €2.23/kg. All of these were Hereford and Angus-cross born in spring 2019. Prices started at €2/kg and maxed at €2.50/kg. The quality lots regularly hit over €2.35/kg.

Heavier 300kg to 400kg lots were better at €2.28/kg, bolstered by the inclusion of a lot of continental lots. Again, dairy-beef cattle started at €2/kg, but only went to €2.15/kg.

Continentals fared very well, starting at €2.55/kg and pushing up to just shy of the €2.90/kg mark. Per head, buyers were willing to pay over €900 but never crossed the €1,000 mark.

Heifers

From 400kg to 500kg, heifers averaged €2.03/kg, with dairy-crosses making €180/kg to €2/kg and continental heifers securing over €2/kg up to €2.34/kg.

Heavier 500kg to 600kg heifers started at €1.70/kg up to €2/kg for dairy-crosses and a small number of continentals pushed further to €2.15/kg.

Around 60 Friesian cows ranged from €0.70/kg up to €1.30/kg or €500 to €850/head.

Thurles Mart

To the seller, commission rates for bullocks, heifers and cows are €10/head for singles and €9/head for multiples, plus 0.05%. For calves, it's €8/head for a single calf plus 0.05%.

To the buyer, commission is €10/head for bullocks, heifers and cows and €7/head for calves.

Analysis for this report was generated from the MartBids app. MartBids is a collaboration between the Irish Farmers Journal and livestock marts. The app is available for download on iPhone or Android on the App Store or Google Play. With this app, all of the information that is displayed on the mart board is now available on your smartphone, long before the animal enters the sales ring.