Cattle buyers appear to have a high level of confidence on the beef trade into the back end of this year and onwards and this was reflected in the trade for store cattle at Enniscorthy Mart's weekly sale on Tuesday, May 3.

Numbers were back slightly at the Wexford Farmers’ Co-Operative's (Enniscorthy Mart's) weekly cattle sale and mart manager Kevin Murphy, attributed this to the large sales of cattle throughout the spring.

While numbers were back slightly, the trade was relatively unchanged on last week despite there being more plainer-type cattle on offer.

With milder conditions taking hold, grass growth seems to have taken off on most farms and this has resulted in there being plenty of buyers turning out at marts for all types of store cattle, as farmers have extra grass on hand for cattle.

The number of cull cows sold through the mart is running well ahead of last year to date and Murphy outlined: "It's the strong trade that's bringing these extra cows out."

Cull suckler cows ranged from €1,040 for store-type cows up to a top price of €1,690, or €2.25/kg for a well-fleshed 750kg Angus-cross cow.

Finished Friesians sold from €1,180, up to €1,500 for a 790kg Friesian cow.

The store-type Friesian cows sold from €780 up to €1,210, or from €250 to €600 over their weight for forward store cows.

Sample cull cow prices at Enniscorthy Mart:

Finished cattle were in short supply on the day but Murphy noted that "there continues to be a massive demand for forward and finished cattle".

Forward store bullocks ranged from €1,400, up to €1,930 for 670kg Limousin bullocks selling up to €1,260 over their weight.

"Those quality suckler-bred forward bullocks ranged from 2.56/kg up to 2.94/kg," added Murphy.

Sample prices for heavy bullocks at Enniscorthy Mart:

Light store bullocks sold from €760 for plainer lots out of the dairy herd, up to €1,465 for top-quality Limousins weighing 490kg.

"Quality lighter-type bullocks are making almost €3.00/kg and the plainer-type bullock is ranging €2.16/kg up to €2.45/kg," said Murphy.

The Enniscorthy Mart manager added: "There were some nice forward-store Friesian bullocks on offer and they ranged from €1,160, up to €1,490kg for four Friesians weighing 628kg.

"These type of Friesian bullocks were selling anywhere from 2.20/kg up to 2.37/kg."

Sample prices for Friesian bullocks:

Suckler-bred forward store heifers sold from €2.53/kg, up to €2.86/kg for quality lots.

Meanwhile, the lighter suckler-bred heifers ranged anywhere from €2.45/kg up to €2.97/kg.

Sample prices for store heifers:

Enniscorthy Mart hosts a weekly sale of cull cows, sucklers, heifers, bullocks and weanlings every Tuesday at 10:30a.m. The mart also hosts a weekly calf sale every Wednesday at 11:00a.m.