Mart Price Tracker

The game has change substantially. I drive a fair bit with work. I was driving through three different counties last week. I couldn’t but notice the amount of black and white cattle (not dairy) out in fields everywhere and I was thinking to myself if you saw this 25 years ago you'd come to the opinion these are not good farmers. I don't dislike sucklers but I can't see the margin I'd expect for my time in them. Sure they are some great cows in some herds producing a great calf every year.

The u grade meat in factories used to end up in high end markets in Holland and Italy. Unfortunately the big money is in the UK.

That is why it's best to go the whole way to the hook with your stock, that way you get paid for what you produce. But in fairness quality suckler bred weanlings & stores are making a fair premium in the marts at the minute too.. little Chx bullock in Carnaross today around 300 kgs making €1,800+

We are only small fry in comparison to what they take/have taken in on Corporation Tax every year. ABP has a turnover of 2bn while total Corpo Tax yields 25bn approx to the exchequer. This is going to be serious.

Friend of mine trying to sell a house in a town where two US multinationals are based, its on the market last four weeks and no bid. Two months back it would have been gone in two weeks.

Kerrygold butter exports are the only sticking point re dairy exports to America, any co-op heavily tied up and not able to divert milk to other products will be hit badly, other than that America isn't a key destination for Irish dairy exports

No but if the EU retaliate they could put tariffs on maize and Soya imported from the US. In Ireland we are more exposed than the rest of the US on this

Have a couple of small bullocks a pt and bb they was 400 and 450kg respectively. I didn't push them over the winter I just stored them with the intension of letting them out to grass with the dairy beef weanlings I bought last year and bring them through to finishing next winter hopefully. but as the prices are good now should I sell them now or should just hang onto them as they value will only rise as the year goes on hopefully. They are not fancy types that's why I was happy to let them lie on.

Difficult to advise anyone on it now as prices have never risen as fast before. Could last 2 years or 2 months. '

'Where there is a boom there is always a bust''

My gut feeling is they will try pull the prices in the not so distant future if the numbers are dropping. This will push lads to off load.

That's what I am thinking have found them lads hard enough to shift other years so decided earlier to bring them to finish but thinks have changed now

No I wouldn't replace them and I also wouldn't be under any pressure keeping them either Il be giving them a kg when the get out anyway for a few weeks just to settle them anyway could keep a half kg going over the summer no issues.

If you mart them I definitely would not be pushing them. They will go back abit after letting them out anyways. As you have them on good grass a kg or 2 of bull beef nut or ration at 12% protein would keep them nice and help to keep them quiet.

I would go with 18% to push growth, 12 to 14% to fatten, but grass this time of year is fairly high protein anyway

Yes i had it in my head as 22% for spring grass, but for growing a frame protein is far superior.

I use a bull nut here for weanlings that I'm selling as it puts great hair and shine like a milky cow would, but if I'm keeping them I feed the higher protein.

But if you feed 12% to young stock that can utilise higher protein efficiently , you're restricting their potential growth and ending up a smaller animal.

But feeding it to older animals would be exactly as you say.

3 yearling heifers in Ennis today.

Factories trying every trick in the book to pull back the price of cattle today and still heard of two factories that hadn’t enough cattle to kill today 🙈🤣🤣🤣🤣one well known factory only had 67 cattle after cattle not showing up and an artic them went to the north of the country

Yes i see the dairy men are back buying heifers, pricing us poor beef finishers out of the game. I couldn't touch anything dairy today. Anyway fair play.