"Heavy lambs were up €5-8/head on last week" at Loughrea Mart on Thursday, August 26, according to the mart's manager Jimmy Cooney.

The Galway-based mart witnessed a strong entry of sheep, although it was marginally smaller than what was seen the week before.

Heavy and factory lambs were a strong trade, while quality ewe lambs were fought for throughout by farmers.

Agriland was there to watch over the sale and spoke to Jimmy afterwards to get his thoughts on the trade.

He said: "Numbers were strong again this week, but were marginally back on last week.

"Factory lambs also witnessed a lift in price and were stronger by I'd say €2-3/head.

"Store lambs were in short supply but we saw a good entry of ewe lambs with the quality ones selling really well, with farmers battling it out for those lots.

"Moving onto the cull ewes, prices weren't maybe as hot as previous weeks, but we still saw an exceptional top price of €189/head for two 109kg ewes.

"Lastly, onto the hogget ewes and mature breeding ewes; the hogget ewes were a bit harder sell this week, with quality probably not as good as last week.

"In saying that, prices still reached €220/head, while we saw a great price of €200/head for a sharp pen of mixed second and third crop ewes," he concluded.