Carnew Mart owner David Quinn is anticipating lively trade at this evening’s Suffolk Sheep Society Ram Sale & Multi Breed Ram Sale. “We’re expecting some top-quality sheep to be on offer, and we’re hoping that as we’re at the peak of the sheep breeding season now we’ll have plenty of interest and plenty of buyers for the sheep.”
“The sale is a multi-breed pedigree ram sale, and the main entry is from The Irish Suffolk Sheep Society – the Leinster branch. They’re going to have about 80 pedigree Suffolk rams on offer, and then on top of that we’ll have probably another 70 pedigree sheep – mostly Texel and Charollais. So we’ll probably have around 1 150 rams in total,” he says.
“The Suffolk Society will have the bulk of those rams and it’s a pedigree sale for them. They also have prizes and vouchers for some of the higher priced rams on offer, so there will be some vouchers for the purchasers of the highest priced rams, which will make it attractive for buyers, he adds.
Carnew Mart has been experiencing pretty steady trade in terms of the sheep market over the last week or two. “There has been a little fall in prices I think due to the dry weather and a bit of a shortage of grass, but in the last few days and even from the middle of last week since a bit of rainfall came, you can see a little bit more confidence in the trade and more buyers out there – so I think the rain we received before and over the weekend has been welcome from a grass point of view and certainly has helped improve the sheep trade somewhat,” he explains.
Good quality Suffolk sheep, and good quality Suffolk cross breeds and lambs continue to make premium prices at Carnew.
With regards to cattle, David comments that, “Despite the tightness of grass, the cattle trade remains remarkably strong, with very very strong interest in beef and heavy cattle as well as quality stores. The market slipped a little bit towards the end of July, but in the last month it has hardened and there’s a very very strong demand for cattle and we’re finding a lot of online buying of beef cattle from factories and wholesalers.”
Has the option of online bidding opened up the market somewhat? “Oh absolutely, it’s certainly been a positive addition to the trade, particularly with breeding rams and with breeding stock where you maybe have part time farmers who haven’t the time to attend the mart.”
“We’re finding a lot of breeding stock is being bought online, so it’s certainly having a positive effect on the market overall,” he concluded.
Tonight’s sale (Wednesday, 7 September 2022) commences at 18:30pm. Eurostar rams available. All sheep carry Zootechnical Certification.
See the catalogue here.
Bidding ringside and online via LSL. Register to bid here.
Contact Carnew Mart Phone: +353 53 942 6234.