Headford Livestock Mart in Co Galway held its annual spring show and sale of bullocks and heifers last Saturday, with a large entry of 450 lots on offer.
Speaking to Irish Farmers Journal after the sale, mart manager Valerie Keogh commented: “Headford Mart saw some outstanding quality cattle offered for show with a mighty trade for forward store bullocks and heifers.
The weanling trade was extremely strong at Saturday’s sale, with buyers digging deep to secure their choice lots and €4.00/kg and above was not uncommon for weanling heifers.
The hammer fell for one stand out-lot, a Limousin-cross heifer weighing 270kg at €1,720 (€6.37/kg). Other high prices included a Belgian Blue heifer weighing 455kg that sold for €2,200 (€4.84/kg) and a 300kg Limousin-cross heifer that sold for €1,270 (€4.23/kg).
Strong influence
With a strong influence of Charolais and Limousin blood in the sale, quality was plentiful but smaller numbers definitely helped to drive demand.
Weanling bulls peaked at €1,460 (€3.56/kg) for a Limousin-cross and this was followed by another bull weighing 400kg that sold for €1,450 (€3.63/kg).
Despite the weanlings being an excellent trade, both the bullocks and heifers also met strong demand with quality drawing a line in the trade.
Good-quality continental heifers typically sold from €3.10/kg to €3.60/kg, with some of the plainer types falling just shy of this and selling from €2.80/kg to €3.00/kg.
The crème de la crème far exceeded this clearing €4.00/kg on a number of occasions, with one Charolais heifer weiging 390kg selling for €2,080 (€5.33/kg), another weighing 580kg that sold for €2,530 (€4.36/kg and a Blonde-cross weighing 505kg that sold for €1,960 (€3.88/kg).
The bullock trade was again dominated by Charolais and Limousin blood, with very few selling for below €3.20/kg.
Some of the more average lots on offer typically sold from €2.90/kg to €3.25/kg. However, the benchmark for the better conformed lots was much higher and hovered around the €3.40/kg mark.
