Although it's still early in the year, marts in recent weeks have noted small entries of breeding ewe hoggets and the feedback from mart managers regarding demand and prices has been really positive.

On Wednesday (June 16) Enniscorthy Mart welcomed a special entry of 60 breeding ewe hoggets, which were met with a very strong trade.

The mart's assistant manager Kevin Murphy was on hand to watch over the trade and take some pictures of some standout lots on offer.

Speaking to Agriland after the sale, he said: "We had a special entry of breeding ewe hoggets on offer - which saw 60 head in total on offer.

"These ewe hoggets were met with massive interest from online bidders in particular, with the vast majority of the eight lots being sold online.

"A pen of Texels made €220/head, while a nice pen of Suffolks' made €224/head."

Click on a thumbnail in the gallery (below) to open up a full-size image; once opened you can scroll sideways to see the next picture. Refer to each caption to see details of each lot, including the hammer price.

Speaking about the trade seen during the general sale of sheep on Wednesday, Kevin added: "We had a much bigger sheep sale this week; numbers took a big jump, with more finished lambs and a bigger number of store lambs on offer.

"Overall, the trade was really outstanding for the time of the year. The cull ewes, in particular were on fire, selling up to a top price of €194 on the day.

"The heavier lambs or butcher-type lambs continue to sell very well with local butchers buying the bulk of these lambs, with prices ranging from 102 to 109 over the kg."

Sample heavy lamb prices:

"The factory-finished lambs ranged from €137/head for six lambs at 40kg, up to €151/head for five lambs at 45kg."

Sample factory lamb prices:

Speaking about the store lamb trade, Kevin added: "We are seeing decent numbers of store lambs coming to market and plenty of farmers are looking to buy nice store lambs.

"They ranged on the day from €105/head for 15 lambs at 35kg, up to €132/head for four lambs weighing 39kg.

Sample store lamb prices:

Commenting on the cull ewe trade, Kevin added: "There was a good entry of cull ewes on the day which saw a massive lift in price.

"There were some top-quality, heavy cull ewes on offer and the trade was on fire for these lots. The store ewes also saw a massive lift."

Sample heavy cull ewe prices:

Sample store cull ewe prices: