Kilrush mart held its weekly cattle sale on Wednesday this week. As with all marts this week numbers are continuing to decline as we head into the summer months but there was still just under 150 cattle through the ring at today’s sale.

The level of online activity was very high in Kilrush day with 39% of the lots being purchased by an online bidder and just under half of the overall bids in the sale coming from online bidders.

Trade was described as brisk with some exceptional prices being paid for light weanlings. Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal Clare marts manager said “We have a lot of customers here for dairy cross cattle and they do very well here.

"We had a share of 2024 born dairy cross bullocks and heifers making over €4/kg today with farmers very active for grass cattle. Online is a big part of the sale here with a lot of local customers actually preferring to buy online”

Martin also spoke about a lift in the suck calf trade with some huge prices being paid for suck calves in the last two weeks. “ We had a number of exporters in attendance looking for calves in Ennis this week. We had about 120 calves in the sale and they met a great trade. The stand out price was €1430 paid for a two month old Charolais bull calf.

Ennis

This April 2021 born pedigree Charolais bull weighed 990kg and sold for €3260 (€3.29/kg)

This April 2023 born Charolais heifer weighed 565kg and sold for €2570 (€4.55/kg)

This March 2015 born Charolais cow weighed 745kg and sold for €2710 (€3.64/kg)

These four November 2023 born Wagyu cross heifers weighed 310kg and sold for €1000 (€3.23/kg)

These pair of August 2024 born Limousin heifer calves weighed 252kg and sold for €1240 (€4.91/kg)