Ireland Cattle Price
Real prices, reported by farmers
Real prices, reported by farmers
Nobody publishes an Irish wool price a farmer can check before the merchant names his figure. So we do. Prices below are the going rate reported in the trade press and by farmers — greasy wool, ex-farm, per kg.
| Wool type | Price range | Trend |
|---|
If that number is red on your farm, you are paying to produce wool — and you are far from alone. The world market is up 35% in a year; almost none of it reaches an Irish yard.
Irish crossbred wool is coarse — it goes to carpets, insulation and bedding, not fine clothing, so it will never make merino money. But that is not the whole story. The clip leaves Ireland greasy and ungraded through a handful of merchants, with no published price at any point in the chain. Global wool has climbed 35% in a year; the Irish farm-gate price moved 5c. When a market moves and the farmer's share doesn't, that is not a wool problem — that is a transparency problem, and it is the same one we track in beef every week.
What would change it: a published weekly price (this page), a demand floor from the State specifying wool insulation in its retrofit programmes, and scouring and grading capacity on this island so the value stops leaving raw.
Report What You Were Paid