Sunshine boosts prices for bullocks going to grass

THE shackles created by weather and ground conditions were cast aside last week, with many customers finally getting the chance to splash the cash in their pursuit of stock across the country’s marts.

For the majority of this socalled ‘spring’ period, those with their sights set on buying longerkeep stock have kept both their hands and their cheque books well stored inside their pockets, but this wasn’t the case last week. Instead, with improving temperatures and actual real sunshine in the offing, those with cattle to buy for grass took on a more serious attitude.

Each one of my mini mart reports opposite tells the same story — while numbers might vary, the want for grass cattle was very evident.

Patsy Smith of Dowra wasn’t too far off the mark nationally when he reckoned your Charolais or Limousin bullock to go to grass was up €40-50/hd. The ringside table shows overall averages were up 6-10c/kg or from €30-50/hd.

However, if you look at the average price for your better bullock, he was up 8-13c/kg or from €40-80/hd. This was another aspect to last week’s trade — the fact that buyers appear to be actively discounting lesser stock, while at the same time willing to drive the better animal into seriously bigger money. Perhaps as the weeks go on, things may begin to level out, but for now it’s all about getting that better conformation animal. Gerry Connellan of Elphin mart commented that “there was a very good trade for good cattle”, so who is buying?

The big hitters are obviously the men who traditionally summer graze, but the feedlot and contract feeder buyers are also still there and they continue to mop up considerable numbers, especially among the heifers.

Also throwing their cheque books into the cattle rings up and down the country last week were what are known as the “seven-month men”. These are individuals whose single farm payment depends on them fulfilling the basic requirement to draw their historical payments by having the minimum number of animals on their holdings for at least seven months.

Bullocks

Last week, therefore saw the first of this year’s really big spring sales across the country. It was a good week in general for sellers, except if you had lighter bullocks and especially if those lighter bullocks happened to be of poorer conformation.

The ringside table shows that the 300-399kg bullock fell on average by 5c/kg or from €15-20/hd, while the bottom quarter at this weight slipped 8c/kg, which is €24-32/hd.

It meant that the gap between the better made continental and poorest Friesian between 300-399kg grew last week to €1.07/kg. In round figures, that’s from €321-425/ hd. There’s probably money to be made in there somewhere, but it’s impossible to call.