Mart Price Tracker

charolais0153

I says wrote: »

There all fine till you try and get them in. I’ve a few here that’ll cock the head as soon as you appear it doesn’t matter the breed. I’ve a lmx here the kids can pet in the field.

Ya, can walk up to them in the field but try and move them:rolleyes:,

kk.man

A couple of years ago I was discussing cattle with a work colleague who would be stubborn by nature. He had inherited a farm from his relatives. I was advising him what to buy.

To cut along story short he went looking at cattle and bought them and was impressed how 'quiet' they were. He sold them eventually and it came round to him buying again.

I was telling him I had just bought friesian cattle and I explained the virtues of these cattle. He then asked me were they 'quiet' at that moment I stopped advising my colleague and never will again.
I came to the conclusion he only wanted cattle for a hobby and he didn't understand friesian cattle as being docile. That's why hobby farmers have a bad name.

Livestock to me have to make a margin whether docile or otherwise and if they are not docile on arrival they will be by the time they leave.

Dozer1

looked at Ennis today weanling bulls on, thought prices were average enough, noticeable price difference between CH and everything else continues.

some nice LM's 300 -340kgs April - May 19 bulls making around the 800-850 range not exactly leaving a massive margin there.

one march 19 CH 530kgs made 1700 cracking calf but mad stuff.

is is me or do cattle look alot more settled in the ring now on the online sales that all the crowds of people aren't there, lads could be in for a surprise when they land home

Dozer1

Dozer1 wrote: »

looked at Ennis today weanling bulls on, thought prices were average enough, noticeable price difference between CH and everything else continues.

some nice LM's 300 -340kgs April - May 19 bulls making around the 800-850 range not exactly leaving a massive margin there.

one march 19 CH 530kgs made 1700 cracking calf but mad stuff.

is is me or do cattle look alot more settled in the ring now on the online sales that all the crowds of people aren't there, lads could be in for a surprise when they land home

Was just looking at the heifers in Ennis, the camera is terrible. Very hard to make out the quality. Personally id have to go to see the stock in the mart.

In Gortatlea and macroom you can stand in the passageway and see the cattle coming out the ring.

Albert Johnson

ruwithme wrote: »

Albert I'm afraid at least one or two marts don't do themselves or cattle any favours when it comes to handling them. mainly poorly designed, layout, facilities, small sales rings especially for bigger stock, auctioneers microphone speaker so badly positioned that it's spooking anyway a anxious beast.

All that without mentioning the odd lad working there that isn't good with stock handling.

undoubtedly though anyway, being in a cattle mart and more so working in one is a
dangerous job.

There's always room for improvement when it comes to facilities and general animal welfare around marts. Oftentimes I wonder if whoever designed some of the handling systems ever tried to put stock through it in on a busy sale day. It's often the small things that make a big difference and a few hours spent adjusting the setup could leave it a lot easier on man and beast.

As for lads with poor stock handling skill's yes they exist but they usually either improve with time or find alternative work. Working in a mart is hardly rocket science type stuff but it does take a certain level of skill, without said skill a sometimes difficult job can get even harder. I often watch young lads starting out and it will take them twice the time and effort to handle cattle because they stand in the wrong place, approach them wrong ect. This usually leads to them working twice as hard and more likely than not they get an odd belter of a kick.

A good auctioneer will often average nearly 60 lots an hour on a day with a good trade. The lads behind the scales therefore have to get a lot loaded on the bridge every 60 second's having sorted them numerically and grouped up any lots with multiple animals. If you've gotten a big pen, wild stock or someone has penned them arse ways in the morning then you'll have no bother with boredom setting in while all this is ongoing. It's easy to be critical when watching from the safety of outside but try being in a confined space with a few hundred kilos of a pissed off beast and only an ash plant for protection.

Albert Johnson

kk.man wrote: »

A couple of years ago I was discussing cattle with a work colleague who would be stubborn by nature. He had inherited a farm from his relatives. I was advising him what to buy.

To cut along story short he went looking at cattle and bought them and was impressed how 'quiet' they were. He sold them eventually and it came round to him buying again.

I was telling him I had just bought friesian cattle and I explained the virtues of these cattle. He then asked me were they 'quiet' at that moment I stopped advising my colleague and never will again.
I came to the conclusion he only wanted cattle for a hobby and he didn't understand friesian cattle as being docile. That's why hobby farmers have a bad name.

Livestock to me have to make a margin whether docile or otherwise and if they are not docile on arrival they will be by the time they leave.

I have that problem with summer grazers every spring, doesn't matter what you buy or how much value they are if there giddy. A quiet beast at a €100 more is still better value in there eye's so that's what has to be bought. As for quieting then over time it will work with the majority of stock and oftentimes all they need is a bit of patience and a few bags of meal.

However there is a small minority of truly wild stock that never settle and imo the more handling on them the wilder they get. These sorts are best left to the own devices as much as possible as trying to do much else with them is only further antagonizing them. I often hear lad's on about a "wild" beast, this might be one that can't be approach close up in the field and is therefore wild in there opinion. I'd love to show them what I'd consider wild cattle. There was 2 weanlings in the mart the last day and they'd climb the walls to get away without anyone near them. One of them made it nearly 8 feet up a wall from a standing jump before gravity took over rather than go through an open gate a few foot further down the passage.

TooOldBoots

What are factory fit Cows making? I have a few big Simmental roughly 800kg to go

Siamsa Sessions

Maybe whips should be used to load cattle, like these lads are doing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m92xY2wIKJk

God help the animals, and god help whoever buys them :eek:

Hard Knocks

Albert Johnson wrote: »

A good auctioneer will often average nearly 60 lots an hour on a day with a good trade. The lads behind the scales therefore have to get a lot loaded on the bridge every 60 second's having sorted them numerically and grouped up any lots with multiple animals. If you've gotten a big pen, wild stock or someone has penned them arse ways in the morning then you'll have no bother with boredom setting in while all this is ongoing. It's easy to be critical when watching from the safety of outside but try being in a confined space with a few hundred kilos of a pissed off beast and only an ash plant for protection.

I often wonder would it not be best weight on entry and longer chutes going into the ring
Even to be able to separate 1 animal into 1 section of the chute

Water John

We''ll have to get Temple Grandin on the case.
Simply have it so that any animal sees another animal in front of it. Don't try and get a single animal onto the weighbridge or into the ring.

Albert Johnson

A lot of marts have changed to having the scales fed from a chute where the cattle are held in single file before entering the weighbridge compared to just having a serious of holding pens. This system has the advantage of allowing cattle to be handled without a shared space and you can have sliding gates and backstops to help control them.

However someone still has to put them into the chute in the first place and unless you load them in numerical order you'll need to have side gates to allow you draft out stock from different places along the chute. In this case you'll still have to load the animal onto the scales without the use of the chute. A chute requires more space which can be problematic in older more confined buildings.

As for weighing stock on entry it's another job that would need doing and you'll still have to sort the stock before going through the ring. The weights would need to be recorded and matched to the lot number or available when the lot is sold.

Bass Reeves

Hard Knocks wrote: »

I often wonder would it not be best weight on entry and longer chutes going into the ring
Even to be able to separate 1 animal into 1 section of the chute

The problem with weighing on entry you would get messing going on. Dealers or farmers might be slipping 5 euro to lad weighting to increase weights. Cattle that would be near the mart would have fierce fresh weight, while cattle traveling a distance would still weight empty.

Hard Knocks

Bass Reeves wrote: »

The problem with weighing on entry you would get messing going on. Dealers or farmers might be slipping 5 euro to lad weighting to increase weights. Cattle that would be near the mart would have fierce fresh weight, while cattle traveling a distance would still weight empty.

That had potential no matter the system.
Sure could be going on currently


An animal could lose 10kg in a day at the mart
Local cattle will always have the advantage over ones brought long journeys
I see lots of cattle arriving an hour before sale

The reason I prefer is allot of weighbridges are shaky and this adds stress to the animal

Bass Reeves

Hard Knocks wrote: »

That had potential no matter the system.
Sure could be going on currently


An animal could lose 10kg in a day at the mart
Local cattle will always have the advantage over ones brought long journeys
I see lots of cattle arriving an hour before sale

The reason I prefer is allot of weighbridges are shaky and this adds stress to the animal

I say nearer 20 kg weight loss in a mart in a mart in the day. No when cattle are weighted going into the ring the results are visible on the scales. I always watch it. While local cattle have the advantage if they are 3-4 hours in a mart the advantage is less pronounced

jfh

Hard Knocks wrote: »

That had potential no matter the system.
Sure could be going on currently


An animal could lose 10kg in a day at the mart
Local cattle will always have the advantage over ones brought long journeys
I see lots of cattle arriving an hour before sale

The reason I prefer is allot of weighbridges are shaky and this adds stress to the animal

After selling a few fresh weight over the last few weeks, I'd say cattle would lose at least 10kg, could be up to 20kg.

Bass Reeves

jfh wrote: »

After selling a few fresh weight over the last few weeks, I'd say cattle would lose at least 10kg, could be up to 20kg.

If you take the truck journey into account cattle will lose 20-30kgs minimum and up to 50 kgs if they arrive at a mart early and are standing in a pen for 6-8 hours

tanko

TooOldBoots wrote: »

What are factory fit Cows making? I have a few big Simmental roughly 800kg to go

There's cows being sold on marteye.ie in Ballyjamesduff mart at the moment, very clear picture and sound.

leoch

do u have to sign up to watch it tanko ??

farming93

37 month old belgian blue u grade fatscore 3+ 750kgs. Anyone an idea what she is worth? She didn't go back in calf after last year.

tanko

leoch wrote: »

do u have to sign up to watch it tanko ??

Yeah i think so. If you can watch you can bid so they have to verify who you are.
Don’t think you can watch without signing up but i’m open to correction on this.

Wes Palmer Lee

farming93 wrote: »

37 month old belgian blue u grade fatscore 3+ 750kgs. Anyone an idea what she is worth? She didn't go back in calf after last year.

Easily 1500 at the right mart. This online stuff has fellas losing the run of themselves!

Bass Reeves

Jjameson wrote: »

If she’s u grade and fleshy I think you could add 150 to that.

That more than 4/kg DW.

mallethead2

I sold 5 weanlings today
all Limousin bullocks
all Sep -19

355kg -940
340kg -920
295kg- 920
295 kg -900
280kg -850
no much feeding in them
I think if i had feed meal I wouldn't have got much more

Lady Haywire

mallethead2 wrote: »

I sold 5 weanlings today
all Limousin bullocks
all Sep -19

355kg -940
340kg -920
295kg- 920
295 kg -900
280kg -850
no much feeding in them
I think if i had feed meal I wouldn't have got much more

Excellent prices, must have been nice stock.

Who2

mallethead2 wrote: »

I sold 5 weanlings today
all Limousin bullocks
all Sep -19

355kg -940
340kg -920
295kg- 920
295 kg -900
280kg -850
no much feeding in them
I think if i had feed meal I wouldn't have got much more

They must have been fairly good weanlings

mallethead2

they were well breed out of good cows and after a decent bull
I was disappointed with the way I did them over the winter didn't have them heavy enough
I'm wondering do buyers have a price and that's as high as they go
that weight of an animal seems to sell really well
I was happy with the price considering their weight

Sugarbowl

mallethead2 wrote: »

they were well breed out of good cows and after a decent bull
I was disappointed with the way I did them over the winter didn't have them heavy enough
I'm wondering do buyers have a price and that's as high as they go
that weight of an animal seems to sell really well
I was happy with the price considering their weight

Did you sell them through online mart or privately?

mallethead2

no I left them into the mart and buyers came in and put their best price on them

mallethead2

I Had them squeezed about 6 weeks ago
I thought they might appeal more to a summer grazer

Albert Johnson

mallethead2 wrote: »

I Had them squeezed about 6 weeks ago
I thought they might appeal more to a summer grazer

You're spot on with that assumption. It definitely pays to squeeze all but the best quality weanlings if selling at this time of year imo. The summer grazers usually want minimal work and buying bullocks often means they can turn them straight out to grass after purchase without having to house them.

I've often seen a bullock make the guts of a hundred more than a similar bull weanling in the spring time due to interest from grass buyer's, this premium isn't usually as apparent in the autumn. The trick is to squeeze them at least a month presale so there bags have reduced down and they look like a bullock.