David Quinn, the mart manager of Carnew Mart, reported a huge number of cast ewes at the Wicklow-based mart's weekly sale of sheep on Thursday (April 15).

Over 2,500 sheep were on offer on the day, with the spring lamb, hogget and cast ewe trades very strong.

Looking at the latter first, record prices were achieved at Carnew for cull ewes on Thursday, with prices topping €208 for a 115kg ewe.

David added: "We saw a super trade for cast ewes on Thursday, with record prices being achieved. We had a huge entry of 1,200-1,300 cull ewes on the day.

"The lighter ewes maybe weren't as hot a trade this week as last week, but still sold well, with prices ranging from €90/head up to €130/head."

David said that hoggets didn't quite hit the heights seen last week, but were still a brilliant trade, with prices topping €187/head.

He added: "We had about 1,000 hoggets on offer on Thursday, with those heavy hoggets over 50kg selling to highs of €180-187/head.

"The lesser-quality 50kg plus hoggets sold back to €170/head.

Sample hogget prices:

The spring lamb trade was improved on the previous week with prices reaching €190/head.

David explained: "We had less than 200 spring lambs on offer, with the 48kg plus lambs selling to highs of €180-190/head.

"Generally, prices for spring lambs started around the €150/head mark for 39-40kg lambs."

Sample spring lamb prices:

Lastly, a strong solid trade was seen for ewes with lambs at foot at Carnew, with prices topping €305/head for ewes with two lambs at foot.

David said: "We continue to see a very solid trade for the ewes with lambs at foot.

"Ewes with single lambs at foot exchanged hands at €175/unit up to €255/unit. While ewes with twin lambs at foot traded from €230/unit up to €305/unit."