The Irish Charolais cattle society hosted its premier spring sale in Elphin this weekend, with a massive reduction in attendance due to the coronavirus restrictions. Pre-sale texts and alerts went out that only prospective buyers and sellers should attend the sale and that a maximum of 100 people would be left around the ring at any one time. Two people manned both doors of the sales ring to ensure this rule was observed. Despite all these precautions being put in place, one of the highest prices ever seen at a Charolais premier was achieved.
The Irish Charolais cattle society hosted its premier spring sale in Elphin this weekend, with a massive reduction in attendance due to the coronavirus restrictions.
Pre-sale texts and alerts went out that only prospective buyers and sellers should attend the sale and that a maximum of 100 people would be left around the ring at any one time. Two people manned both doors of the sales ring to ensure this rule was observed. Despite all these precautions being put in place, one of the highest prices ever seen at a Charolais premier was achieved.
Junior champion
Selling for a massive €15,000 was the day’s junior champion Noble Prince. Tapped out by judge Will Short, this January 2019-born bull was the property of Longford breeder Harry Noble.
The 820kg junior champion is a son of Thrunton Fairfax, with PTI Prince in the back breeding of the dam. He carries five stars on the replacement index and has a calving figure of only 5.2%.
Auctioneer Tom Cox had a number of interested parties, and the final bid was placed by Northern Ireland-based Bartley Finnegan, who secured Prince for his ever-expanding semen company Elite Pedigree Genetics.
Even with this top price, the sale lacked the spark that only comes with the atmosphere a large crowd brings.
The average price settled at €3,780, back slightly on the year. Perhaps most affected by the reduction in spectators was the overall clearance, which dropped by 15 percentage points to 63%.
Full report to follow.
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