Kilkenny Mart sees flood of new buyers at sales

Last Thursday’s sale at Kilkenny Mart attracted another good yard of cattle with 1050 on offer and at least 70 lots on offer exceeded the €4 per kilo mark.

The sale resulted in a 100% clearance for heifers with bullocks achieving a 98% clearance.
In the last few months Kilkenny Mart has attracted a number of new buyers, mainly due to the bigger numbers on offer which gives potential buyers a change to fill loads.

New buyers
Many of these new purchasers have said that they have got fed up attending sales and only being able to secure one or two animals due to the smaller numbers and at least Kilkenny Mart gives them an opportunity to fill a load.

The trade has been helped by the presence of feed lot buyers, exporters, farmers and North of Ireland buyers and factory agents all looking for stock.

If you are a farmer who normally sells on the farm I suggest you should review the situation. The prices being generated in the mart rings at the moment would not be secured in private deals at home and you could well be losing hundreds of euro.

If you have bullocks or heifers to sell and they are tested within the last year and have two tags you should try the mart ring to secure the maximum return. Why not give Kilkenny Mart office a call on 056 7721407 to enter cattle before 3.30pm on the previous Wednesday .

Sheep and Dairy
On Mondays we hold our sheep sale at 10.15am with our dairy sale at 12.30 pm.
The sheep sale is worked on a first come first served basis but for the dairy sale we need entries to be in on the previous Wednesday so we can print off a catalogue and have it up online for potential purchasers to view over the weekend.

Last Monday saw fresh calved Fr cows and heifers range from €1400 to €2800 per head. The entry for this sale is online but you can also pick up one in the mart office.

On Tuesdays we hold our calf and cull cow sale which takes place on a weekly basis. It is not essential to book them in for these sales but it is helpful for us here in Kilkenny Mart as we can inform potential buyers how many will be on offer.

Last Tuesday the calf sale attracted about 300 with an excellent trade for all on offer. This good trade was achieved even allowing for the absence of our usual exporters who were restricted from buying due to boats not operating. This problem has been resolved this week.

Excellent Trade
The trade for all animals at the moment is excellent and in the short term there is no reason to suggest that things will dramatically change, but it has become very difficult to predict the future.

As I mentioned in my last article on these pages a few factors have helped to create the present record prices. A shortage of supply and a buoyant export trade as has been seen with 25,500 animals leaving the country over the first few weeks of this year.

The reason for this is the outbreak of blue tongue in UK and mainland Europe which means that Irish exporters are very active trying to fill the void.

Hopefully the good times price wise for cattle and sheep will keep rolling along and if an adjustment occurs it will be gradual.
Until next time do be careful on the farm and good buying, good selling and good luck.