Mart Price Tracker

huey1975 · 12-09-2025 09:58PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123809597#Comment_123809597

For me farming is a hobby, I’ll have a SFP of about €17k, Acres payment of €7k and €2.5k of ANC.
I don’t think it’s snobbery to want to buy good continental cattle that will have better feed conversion efficiency, better kill out percentages , and obtain higher prices on the BQAS grid. Unless I can see a heifer that’s going to grade U- or better and kill out over 380kg she is not purchased.
There is great satisfaction in seeing a heifer grade U+ and kill out over 450kg. I don’t complain about factory price as I can’t control it. If I produce beef at a loss it’s a pain in the arse but as for reducing other farmers income that’s a load of nonsense!! The biggest cost I have is buying a good quality store and that money goes to another farmer.

Back4more · 12-09-2025 10:17PM

My neighbour buys decent weanling bulls and then castrates them ,he has a nice field of cattle to look at and I am only guessing but he must be doing ok because that is his system with 20 years !!

Some people here seem to have a belief you cant make money out of buying quality cattle ,while I would be of the opinion 'the day you buy is the day you sell'

Bass Reeves · 12-09-2025 10:21PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123809993#Comment_123809993

I would have presumed you understood I was referring to cattle that will be in the system for10-12 month cattle as that is what we are generally buying at present. When you are trading you need a system/business system in place. There is many factors you allude to there, you left out a few, capital tied up is an important one.

At present I have limited capital in the system asI have no 2024 farm payment yet and I am not sure I will see it before year end either. Up until two years ago I used to have about 36k tied up in stock purchases 55-60 cattle had to be purchased after I bought the new place I had to stock with very limited capital. Flexibility and adaptability has been the name of the game as 50k+ has gone into infrastructure, land fertility and land improvement which leaves livestock funding tight.

My aim is to get 1k gross margin in 12 months. I use replacements cost V sales as an basis of the system. But quality was a limiting factor this year due to capital investment in stock limit in early 2024. Having said that stock that probably averaged 350 in purchase costs averaged over 2k in sales value.

So we are trying to buy an animal with a shorter time frame on farm and increase our margin. Picked up three Fr bullocks approx 400kgs 24 months of age a really hungry looking HO bullock and two FRx type bullocks. I expect the FRX will hang 300+, this year such animals averaged up near 7.5DW ( 4/ kg LW) estimation is 7/ kg in June next year. Ww also purchased 5 month CH heifer 400kgs R+ grade at 1610 euro, age is probably 12-14 months in reality. She can either go through the mart next, summer at 600++ @ ( July/August sold a good quality at4.65/ kg) or go for slaughter potentially she could hang 370kgs+ next August. They were picked up this week .

Last week bought 3 FRX type heifers FS1 300 kgs for 830 euro. Another CH heifer bug hungry store 350kgs24 months @ 1400 355kgs for 1100 euro. And a HEX heifer off an FRX cow. Assumptions related to this years price The FRX will hit 550kgs farm weight 270 DW @7/kg or through the mart 520kgs @ 370/ kg. The HEX heifer 600LW or 300 DW. This year we got 7.7 in May for such a heifer and 4.3LW later in the mart weight for her at 600 kgs would be 565/570

The CH heifer is a dinger. Have not seen an animal do as well in 7 day. Expect her to be close to 500kgs+ going to grass next year. She will do 700 grams on silage alone indoors I think. Not sure how she fell to us at that money.

Aim is to get to 90 stores we are at 70+. We will buy 40 in No 2025 cattle as well later in the year as they come on stream. Left a 250kg Fr heifer for 550 euro @18 months old behind me during the week( I had nothing else bought). She would fall in with those younger cattle

Bass Reeves · 12-09-2025 10:30PM

I was quoting @huey1975 wrong quote originally

I perfer the satisfaction of three HEX heifers we bought last February, 24 months, 5 moves, 250 kgs @ 450 euro one is gone at 1670 this week. The last two will hang 300 kgs after Christmas at least about 500kgs at present. The other one was 480 I think on the farm scales off a Jex cow butcher bought her

Who2 · 12-09-2025 11:04PM

bass you seem to do your job reasonably well but your exceptionally blinkered and regularly bitter in your views to other people’s opinions . We can all give you success stories and toss whatever limited information I want to throw at you to suit whatever narrative i want to put across.
I am averaging over 2400 for weanlings so far this year and there are suckler farmers that are doing even better than that.
I bought 3 heifers for someone a while back for just over 4K and I was told it was madness, they sold for over 15k .

I seen weanlings sold for 15-1600 mad money at the time with everyone saying they couldn’t turn a profit, that killed over 4K this summer.

The one swallow statement will be thrown back and fair enough but maybe we should consider none of us are always right.

Bass Reeves · 12-09-2025 11:19PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123811638#Comment_123811638

Who2 I quoted the wrong post, I had just posted, refreshed the page and was reposting but must have refreshed the page as well. I think I have it sorted.

By the way if we want this site to survive we need more subscriptions

Can I discuss the rest of your post

Bass Reeves · 12-09-2025 11:21PM

Sorry Blackmore quoted the wrong post

kk.man · 12-09-2025 11:25PM

I learnt that livestock turn around is not profitable when it's too slow. You must keep everything going on in the background as well as your bills. Im not going into specifics but even this dear spring there was a savage margin while not competing with the feedlots and beautiful cattle.

I had cattle bought in April turn 800e net in August now i know this was an exceptional They won't win any prizes but they'll turn over. Let's say it was a bad back end there was still a good twist there in a short time frame. Ben Dunne snr used to say stack high and sell them cheap. I try to stack them high and not sell them cheap.

There's no such thing as a dear mart you just got to see where's there's value.

Bass Reeves · 12-09-2025 11:37PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123811704#Comment_123811704

Are you a fulltime farmer KK, you just seem.to spend a lot of the time in marts. I am never in the mart unless selling. I seldom turn cattle in less that 8-10 months. My game is keep costs snd workload low (on workload the orginal place is 10 miles from the house) and gove cattle time

I strictly buy at the edges off the euro saver menu.

kk.man · 12-09-2025 11:46PM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123811721#Comment_123811721

No im not but I've great flexibility in work so I live on the phone 🙊. I also perfected the art of playing poker with people who try to take me out. (I only ever buy a lotto thicket every other Saturday night). Plus im very central to many marts.

DBK1 · 13-09-2025 12:00AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123811499#Comment_123811499

How the hell would I know what you’re buying and how long you’re keeping them for without you giving that information?

1k gross margin would be good going no matter what stock you’re buying in general, but I’d think there’s not an animal in Ireland being sold or killed at the minute that hasn’t done that and a lot more. A relation of mine sold 8 x 10 month old heifer weanlings from his own cows in Gort a few weeks ago and came home with €24,800 of a cheque. Even allowing him €1k to keep the cow and calf for the year, he had €2k of a net margin, not gross. The same stock 2 years ago and he’d have been delighted to be getting €1,200-€1,400. This has been an exceptional year for cattle prices, what’ll happen next year no-one can predict but take your Charlaois heifer, what if beef is back to €6 a kilo and she only kills 350kgs?

The best thing you could do with them poorly done older heifers is feed them properly over the winter, never mind trying to keep them on silage alone. Your expecting a 400kg heifer to be hitting 500kgs going to grass, even if you get her to grass in mid March and she’s 520kgs that’s 6 months away so you’re hoping for her to average less than 0.7kgs per day between the rest of the grazing season and the winter. If I had stock doing that weight gain I’d be trying to figure out what was wrong with them.

kk.man · 13-09-2025 12:09AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123811763#Comment_123811763

Your right your friend was making 2 to 400 net a couple of years ago. I was making that at the time too without the extra animal and stocked at a higher density.

Yes his making the big bucks now but who has a big number of sucklers now.

Bass Reeves · 13-09-2025 12:17AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123811738#Comment_123811738

I lived that sort of game myself 10+ years ago but LSL was not there. Ya I learned to play poker as well, never had the confidence to bulldoze ny way into the ring. But I could compete from either the front or back row.

Then Covid and LSL happened and a terrible beauty was born.

DBK1 · 13-09-2025 12:32AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123811776#Comment_123811776

Yep I agree with you, I was more just using him as an example of the type of margin to be made out of all stock at the minute if they’re done right, regardless of what breed or grade they are.

ginger22 · 13-09-2025 07:38AM

Looks like milk price has passed its peak and the only way is down from here on. Next Spring we will be lucky to get 45 cents and dropping from there. The feed to milk price is so good now, world production is increasing, New Zealand getting off to a good start, US way up. Dairy inseminations up. Yet lads here paying crazy money for cows. A clearance sale in Corrin yesterday 3 to 4 thousand for old cows. When lads have money it burns a hole in their pockets.

sterday old cowd making 3 to 4 thousand.

WoozieWu · 13-09-2025 07:46AM

uk supply up 6 percent despite the drought

arla suppliers getting over 60pl

kk.man · 13-09-2025 09:14AM

https://www.boards.ie/discussion/comment/123811958#Comment_123811958

Might help to keep parlour cows away from the lairages.

patsy_mccabe · 13-09-2025 01:34PM

I spent some time in Ennis Mart recently and I was amazed to see a lot of the bigger well known buyers bidding away on their phones outside the ring. Before online bidding there were always positioned ringside.