Mart Price Tracker

Robson99

Very hard to buy on line without seeing them in the flesh.
What looks good on camera could end up being butty little yolks when you go to collect. I know I would always like a look at cattle before they go into the ring and would even still be near the exit chute or the ring when they being sold
Personally I don't see this working long term.

Limestone Cowboy

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

But can you tell the true quality of the animals from video alone?

It would be great if you had seen the animals beforehand ..... like a neighbour selling a suckler cow or fancy breeding bull or heifer. I'd say a lot would be sold on colour alone. Good hairy yellow charolais etc.

Most marts are letting in people to view them in the pens before the sale begins.

Robson99

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Most marts are letting in people to view them in the pens before the sale begins.

So say you travel 50 miles to a mart.
Do you view them, go out and sit in the jeep and bid, wait there till the sale finishes and back in to collect.

Limestone Cowboy

Robson99 wrote: »

So say you travel 50 miles to a mart.
Do you view them, go out and sit in the jeep and bid, wait there till the sale finishes and back in to collect.

Ya pretty much or take your chance with just seeing them on the video going through the ring. Not sure if you have to wait until the sale is finished to collect them.

Robson99

Limestone Cowboy wrote: »

Ya pretty much or take your chance with just seeing them on the video going through the ring. Not sure if you have to wait until the sale is finished to collect them.

Ya i know what you mean....meant if you wanted something near the end of the sale you wait in the jeep.
Jasus that would be some Craic. Imagine ****e internet in the carpark lads ffn and blinding.
Sorry but this will not be a long term change. The ringside is also a social release for a lot of lads that are farming fulltime

Bass Reeves

Robson99 wrote: »

Very hard to buy on line without seeing them in the flesh.
What looks good on camera could end up being butty little yolks when you go to collect. I know I would always like a look at cattle before they go into the ring and would even still be near the exit chute or the ring when they being sold
Personally I don't see this working long term.

With friesian's it will make little difference and similar with a lot if dairy bred stores bought at 12-20 months of age. If you had access to tag numbers you could see if there was JE or KYA breeding in the cattle. Cameras are improving as well. Finally you have the fact that over time you may be able to home in on certain sellers cattle

patsy_mccabe

It's a bit like what Winston Churchill said about democracy - "It's the worst form of government, except for all the others.”

Marts are not perfect, but they're the best we have at the moment. If Marts were held on a Saturday, it would solve a lot of problems.

Hard Knocks

Bass Reeves wrote: »

With friesian's it will make little difference and similar with a lot if dairy bred stores bought at 12-20 months of age. If you.bad a cess to tag numbers you could see if there was JE or KYA breeding in the cattle. Cameras are improving as well. Finally you have the fact that over time you may be able to home in on certain sellers cattle

Weigh & video on entry would help
Even if tag was shown, you need owner to be In herdplus to see breeding (think there should be a loophole for marts)

patsy_mccabe

Ennis Mart Ring 1
Cows now selling live.

https://www.livestock-live.com/MartMemberAccess/Market/MartAuctionProgressOnlineAuction?Mart=ENNIS4

Base price

Bass Reeves wrote: »

With friesian's it will make little difference and similar with a lot if dairy bred stores bought at 12-20 months of age. If you.bad a cess to tag numbers you could see if there was JE or KYA breeding in the cattle. Cameras are improving as well. Finally you have the fact that over time you may be able to home in on certain sellers cattle

Now that the dams breed code is on the cards it should be shown on the mart/online board.

tanko

Considering that all this online selling has been set up from scratch in a few months i don't think it's doing too bad. It's only starting off and there's no reason why it can't be improved on. Maybe marts could film individual cattle or pens of cattle before the sale and post the film online so that farmers can view cattle. I'm sure the quality of filming could be improved over time also.

I can see why farmers/dealers who buy a lot of cattle don't like it, they can't carry out their tried and tested you have this one and i'll have that one crap so easily. They must miss waving their arms around in the ring pointing frantically at some illegible number scrawled on their hand.
I'd say certain auctioneers hate it too, they can't knock cattle down to their friends like before.
Before the marts closed insurance premiums were becoming a big problem. These online systems might help more marts to stay open.
I'm sure plenty thought that when fairs were replaced by marts it wouldn't work.

Bass Reeves

Hard Knocks wrote: »

Weigh & video on entry would help
Even if tag was shown, you need owner to be In herdplus to see breeding (think there should be a loophole for marts)

No if you have ICBF you can see breeding details.

Bass Reeves

Base price wrote: »

Now that the dams breed code is on the cards it should be shown on the mart/online board.

If cattle were pre-booked and tag numbers available from early morning on lots you know alot before auction

patsy_mccabe

Good quality Lim cow sell in Ennis now (on-line) ;
Lot 135E
675kg
€ 1,240 Look Fleshy


Lot 135H
715 Kg
€ 1,310 Char Cow, not as fleshy as last

Lot 135k
780 kg
€ 1,530 Really shapey, black Lim x BB type

DukeCaboom

Dealers or large buyers will bend the system eventually to suit themselves . These lads are meeting each other four or five times a week, eating in canteens together, traveling to marts together. Its in there interest to work together They are far from stupid.

I see in bandon at the moment for the calves the dealers have things running very efficiently now. The last few weeks there's calves for f all there. They're all sitting on a wall out side the mart dividing up the calves between them. I saw calves today in Gortatlea at €240 hex heifers.... €150 last Monday in bandon.

Wes Palmer Lee

Yeah, without the farmer bidding at ringside its minimum prices.

Base price

DukeCaboom wrote: »

Dealers or large buyers will bend the system eventually to suit themselves . These lads are meeting each other four or five times a week, eating in canteens together, traveling to marts together. Its in there interest to work together They are far from stupid.

I see in bandon at the moment for the calves the dealers have things running very efficiently now. The last few weeks there's calves for f all there. They're all sitting on a wall out side the mart dividing up the calves between them. I saw calves today in Gortatlea at €240 hex heifers.... €150 last Monday in bandon.

The CHx bull at €545 and the two heifers at €465 was serious money. I was more surprised at a FRx bull calf selling for €140.

Hard Knocks

Bass Reeves wrote: »

No if you have ICBF you can see breeding details.

I know
But for the herds not on ICBF but pay the tag levy there should be something
There data is there

181 liam

Online marts will continue after covid in conjunction with what we called normal sales.
In kilmallock wed 10/12 buyers turned up to view while up to 40 bid online without viewing im told. On monday aax blks 483kg made 1090 if normal sale they wouldnt make 2/kg.
Dealers not supporting it much i hear but the genie has got out marts have made outlay

straight

181 liam wrote: »

Online marts will continue after covid in conjunction with what we called normal sales.
In kilmallock wed 10/12 buyers turned up to view while up to 40 bid online without viewing im told. On monday aax blks 483kg made 1090 if normal sale they wouldnt make 2/kg.
Dealers not supporting it much i hear but the genie has got out marts have made outlay

Dealers can't throw the dirty looks online....

Cavanjack

181 liam wrote: »

Online marts will continue after covid in conjunction with what we called normal sales.
In kilmallock wed 10/12 buyers turned up to view while up to 40 bid online without viewing im told. On monday aax blks 483kg made 1090 if normal sale they wouldnt make 2/kg.
Dealers not supporting it much i hear but the genie has got out marts have made outlay

This is the same story over and over.
The farmers selling thinks that dealers keep the price down. The farmers buying think the dealers are putting the prices up on them.
I’ve often spent days in the mart trying to buy cattle but to be outbid in every animal by a couple of dealers who had orders in for cattle and didn’t care how high they had to go.
The dealers are buying for their customers. Do you think these customers are bypassing the dealers now and bidding online themselves?

Siamsa Sessions

The cattle I bought last week were thru a dealer. His son delivered them and I was asking him how they were managing with the current set up in marts.

He claimed it was much easier to operate now since they were buying most of their cattle directly from farmers who either didn't trust or understand the mart's drop-off/tender/online systems.

This dealer didn't say it, but I'm guessing if a farmer was busy at the moment and was offered a close-to-decent price, he might be content to take it and avoid the hassle of spending half the day travelling to the mart and waiting around to sell the cattle. Better to take €10 less and have the dealer collect them out of your own yard.

Maybe this new way of operating is just something of an extension to people selling animals on DoneDeal?

181 liam

Cavanjack wrote: »

This is the same story over and over.
The farmers selling thinks that dealers keep the price down. The farmers buying think the dealers are putting the prices up on them.
I’ve often spent days in the mart trying to buy cattle but to be outbid in every animal by a couple of dealers who had orders in for cattle and didn’t care how high they had to go.
The dealers are buying for their customers. Do you think these customers are bypassing the dealers now and bidding online themselves?

I do think some are bypassing them people like to do their own business and if they see cattle they are interested in they can bid.
Also factory agents and feedlots have access to marts now which was time consuming before

CHOPS01

A few lads looking for quiet cattle must have signed up to the auld interweb thingamajig !!
Watching a bit of the Ennis sale earlier.
4 HEx 25/26 months old 556kg sold for €1260 Madness. Seller is gone home on a horn I'd say.

patsy_mccabe

CHOPS01 wrote: »

A few lads looking for quiet cattle must have signed up to the auld interweb thingamajig !!
Watching a bit of the Ennis sale earlier.
4 HEx 25/26 months old 556kg sold for €1260 Madness. Seller is gone home on a horn I'd say.

Probably larry and co.

CHOPS01

patsy_mccabe wrote: »

Probably larry and co.

In fairness that's what I was thinking.Can be the only reason for that kind of a price.

tanko

That price is absolutely disgraceful, the bloody cheek of that farmer to make a tiny profit or break even on those cattle after his two years work. Who does he think he is.
I hope the mart manager steps in there and takes a few hundred off the cheque.
We can't be having this kind of carry on, it's a scandal Joe.....

patsy_mccabe

Well finished cows seem to be going well. That indicates a shortage of beef.

CloughCasey1

CHOPS01 wrote: »

A few lads looking for quiet cattle must have signed up to the auld interweb thingamajig !!
Watching a bit of the Ennis sale earlier.
4 HEx 25/26 months old 556kg sold for €1260 Madness. Seller is gone home on a horn I'd say.

Guts of 200 quid more than what they would hang for and at the weight they are now will struggle to make up the price even at 29mts. Must be feedlot.....or straight to factory. Either that or two lads sitting in the car park eyeballing each other and bidding away in spite.

CloughCasey1

tanko wrote: »

That price is absolutely disgraceful, the bloody cheek of that farmer to make a tiny profit or break even on those cattle after his two years work. Who does he think he is.
I hope the mart manager steps in there and takes a few hundred off the cheque.
We can't be having this kind of carry on, it's a scandal Joe.....

Ah now tanko. Chops is trying to finish good quality HEX and finishing them correctly. 360kg DW O+ 3= is his minimum target every time.
Target 1 Meet QA O= or better
Target 2 dont go over weight
Target 3 dont go over fat
Target 4 Finish them at the right time of year to gain best price (lottery)
It's very vexing as a finisher to see cattle being bought for more than likely feedlot/factory that are not done and are not going to meet any spec for such a price, when we are jumping through hoops to get a good bishop Brendan style kick up the hole.

More power to the man that sold them.☺

Bass Reeves

tanko wrote: »

That price is absolutely disgraceful, the bloody cheek of that farmer to make a tiny profit or break even on those cattle after his two years work. Who does he think he is.
I hope the mart manager steps in there and takes a few hundred off the cheque.
We can't be having this kind of carry on, it's a scandal Joe.....

TBF Tanko every finisher here has at different stages stated when they see high prices that the s losing farmer needs all that and more. However we have to deal with the factor price. We have to deal with the reality of factory feedlots or very large contracted feeders being paid way more than us than us and these used to suppress the price to us.

I hope that that bullock was bough and went straight for slaughter. That is the best case scenario for all finisher's. If he was bought by a lad paying over the odds for summer grazing(we are entering the last few weeks for lads to qualify for the 7 months stocking) well and good no issue stupid is what stupid dose

The real problem is if a feedlot bought him for finishing. Then 10 other bullocks will need to be paid 10-15c/ kg less to balance his price.

The second senario is the.mist likely.

Robson99

As always the feed lots will give it in the Marts and not in the factory. Nothing new with that

Danzy

780 for an AAX heifer, 390kg today in Carnew mart.

She was not even a middling example of her kith and kin.

They'll be talking for years about the days the online auctions started.

Cavanjack

The townies at work are talking about all the online shopping they are doing since the lockdown. Buying rubbish for the sake of it. Suppose this is online shopping for farmers.

Danzy

Cavanjack wrote: »

The townies at work are talking about all the online shopping they are doing since the lockdown. Buying rubbish for the sake of it. Suppose this is online shopping for farmers.

She was so bad I wouldn't even have bought her.

CloughCasey1

Danzy wrote: »

She was so bad I wouldn't even have bought her.

I bought 2 starved yearling aax bulls in March. 430 each. Fairly thriving off good grass now. Will probably leave me more than the few U grade "proper" cattle I bought.

Danzy

CloughCasey1 wrote: »

I bought 2 starved yearling aax bulls in March. 430 each. Fairly thriving off good grass now. Will probably leave me more than the few U grade "proper" cattle I bought.

I've no time for continentals, fighting feed lots and fancy finishers to get them, heaps of ration etc.

I was being self deprecating. I bought some right ones when I first started on the mart.

I'm 95% Aax and HEx and I think better for it.

Who2

It’s an absolute disgrace with lads going out there trying to breed good cattle. No man should be seen buying them. I’d be ashamed if I bought good cattle to try finish.
Is it just boards or what’s the chip on all the shoulder here with continental stock, constant degrading and insulting with anyone else’s views on cattle. It gets fair tiring listening to the same few lads make out they are genius’s at finishing and everyone who does anything different is a fool.
Get over yourselves, there’s still plenty of room and systems that lads can work with different types of animal just because it doesn’t fall into the way you farm doesn’t mean another lad can’t make it work.

Bass Reeves

Who2 wrote: »

It’s an absolute disgrace with lads going out there trying to breed good cattle. No man should be seen buying them. I’d be ashamed if I bought good cattle to try finish.
Is it just boards or what’s the chip on all the shoulder here with continental stock, constant degrading and insulting with anyone else’s views on cattle. It gets fair tiring listening to the same few lads make out they are genius’s at finishing and everyone who does anything different is a fool.
Get over yourselves, there’s still plenty of room and systems that lads can work with different types of animal just because it doesn’t fall into the way you farm doesn’t mean another lad can’t make it work.

I do not do Continental cattle as everyone knows. Over the last 2-3 years I have seen more and more smaller finisher's move away from these types of cattle. I did them as bulls for a few years. And that was where many lads were with them. However a lot of smaller finisher's have moved away from winter finishing and towards a 10-16 month system. I still buy a few if they are in my value range. To compete with FR (costing 1.3-1.5/kg for my system they have to be landing at sub 2/kg for extra risk, work and capital involved.

Why is this. I am not interested unless there is a super margin of carrying stock to 400kgs+. As a smaller finisher if I have cattle above 420DW processor's will penalise them. The difference between a 400 DW carcass and a 440DW carcass in a penalty situation is 1.5/kg DW or 60 euro. If you get an extra notch on the grade it adds another 50c/kg to the difference.


A Continental will take 8-10 weeks at 3kg/day coated to about 6 weeks for Friesian's. They do not do a whole pile more weight wise than a Friesian although they will killout better.

A friend of mine finishes Hex and AA heifers mainly. Now he is stocked lower than me but he can finish over 50% without any ration and they will be killing above 300kgs.

The beauty of these types of cattle is low capital involved, relatively quick turnaround and stock that are in demand. Including fees and transport I paid about 40k last year for 45FR,10AA, 8 HE, and 6CH. The CH I just happened to buy one day. If all them were continental cattle I have another 25-30k tied up in cattle.

If I went back to weanlings I have a higher mortality risk and cattle in hand 6-8mobths longer.

CloughCasey1

Who2 wrote: »

It’s an absolute disgrace with lads going out there trying to breed good cattle. No man should be seen buying them. I’d be ashamed if I bought good cattle to try finish.
Is it just boards or what’s the chip on all the shoulder here with continental stock, constant degrading and insulting with anyone else’s views on cattle. It gets fair tiring listening to the same few lads make out they are genius’s at finishing and everyone who does anything different is a fool.
Get over yourselves, there’s still plenty of room and systems that lads can work with different types of animal just because it doesn’t fall into the way you farm doesn’t mean another lad can’t make it work.

I have some lovely stock here. I'm just not going to pay crazy money for them. I get as much satisfaction buying an animal for 430 that will kill next year at 1000 than buying a store bullock 18 months old for 1100 that will kill next year at 1650. What I'm saying is I'm not joining the queue for what everyone else is scrapping for. Photo is a Ptx bullock that I bought as a light weanling off a heifer with feck all milk. Has turned inside out. Only cost 590.

mf240

A few years back a local suckle mans weanlings jumped a wall into our bucket reared cattle. The man himself would be thick and the cattle fairly mad. It was hilarious Wathing him and his father running around after his cattle and our cattle following them.

richie123

mf240 wrote: »

A few years back a local suckle mans weanlings jumped a wall into our bucket reared cattle. The man himself would be thick and the cattle fairly mad. It was hilarious Wathing him and his father running around after his cattle and our cattle following them.

I got a good laugh at that :)

CHOPS01

richie123 wrote: »

I got a good laugh at that :)

+1

Who2

Jjameson wrote: »

I have tried just about every class and quality of stock bar bulls in a myriad of feeding regimes and have concluded that buying from farmers against farmers with independent income/no need for margin and then selling to a cartel, throw in weather to the mix and nothing leaves a consistent margin.
But docility of continental cattle can (not always) leave a low margin business fraught with a good measure of hardship that’s simply not there with dairy cross cattle.

The rhetoric of plain cattle= bad beef= = bad farmer is the norm and it’s no harm that there one forum in the country putting another view in the public domain.

There’s nobody pushing that here on this forum and if anything it’s the other way. Everyone is supportive of the others options bar the ones trying to justify why they buy plainer cattle by down grading the ones who don’t. I’m not in this for an argument but good money can be made off dearer stock .
I know a lad who buys 1400 euro heifers, bulls them and sells them springing. He keeps nothing more than twelve months on his farm, damn all vet fees, ai and fertilizer and baling is his main expense and sells for 2k plus usually. He got over 2400 average a few years back. Serious investment and loves what he’s at and while in no rational way could I justify spending that money on bullers or springers it works, another lad buys a couple of my heifers every year around 400kg or less between 900-1150 and has shown me dockets of killouts the following year at 1600-1800 usually. Now he looks after them, but he’s not wrong either he just has a different approach.
If everyone changes to plain cattle where will we start the base price at? Will o become the new r. Again I’m not arguing here I just have a different way of doing the same thing. I personally enjoy trying to breed good cattle (most of the time) and will still give out about prices and costs but I can turn a decent profit most years however I will spend the most of it back on the farm on things that don’t make financial sense but make farming easier and keeps it enjoyable and the tax man off my back. Why should the likes of me be condemned if someone is willing to give 1000 plus for weanlings. We all have different wants and needs.

Anto_Meath

mf240 wrote: »

A few years back a local suckle mans weanlings jumped a wall into our bucket reared cattle. The man himself would be thick and the cattle fairly mad. It was hilarious Wathing him and his father running around after his cattle and our cattle following them.

You identified the problem with those cattle & wasnt that they were contentials, it was the thick farmer. If had dairy reared cattle they would have been just as mad. The maddest bullock I had in recent years was a Fr bought in a bunch of 5 but when I look at the orgional owner on the card it explained alot. Knew him in night clubs year ago a full jack ass and his stock take after him...

mf240

Anto_Meath wrote: »

You identified the problem with those cattle & wasnt that they were contentials, it was the thick farmer. If had dairy reared cattle they would have been just as mad. The maddest bullock I had in recent years was a Fr bought in a bunch of 5 but when I look at the orgional owner on the card it explained alot. Knew him in night clubs year ago a full jack ass and his stock take after him...

There is definitely at least some truth in that. However like the cattle this farmers father was thick too. So maybe it's a mixture of both:D

Anto_Meath

mf240 wrote: »

There is definitely at least some truth in that. However like the cattle this farmers father was thick too. So maybe it's a mixture of both:D

Is that why we try to keep quite bulls for breeding....

trg

Folks is there somewhere that gives a list of the live marts? Google directing me to marts held in 2017!

Cavanjack

Buy most of our cattle here in the marts, mostly continental and usually in lots of one to two. Rarely have problems with mad cattle. We walk through them in the field regularly, maybe give them a taste of meal on the ground so they know what a bag is then they will follow us wherever we go.
It’s usually the mad farmer that drives them mad.

Danzy

Who2 wrote: »

It’s an absolute disgrace with lads going out there trying to breed good cattle. No man should be seen buying them. I’d be ashamed if I bought good cattle to try finish.
Is it just boards or what’s the chip on all the shoulder here with continental stock, constant degrading and insulting with anyone else’s views on cattle. It gets fair tiring listening to the same few lads make out they are genius’s at finishing and everyone who does anything different is a fool.
Get over yourselves, there’s still plenty of room and systems that lads can work with different types of animal just because it doesn’t fall into the way you farm doesn’t mean another lad can’t make it work.

Fair point and taken on board.

Where I am in North Cork, suckler cattle are now scarce in the Mart and often hard fought over.

That's only in one place and doesn't necessarily apply to every part.

Every where is different, every system and farm need is different.

Neck wound in.