There were just over 300 calves at Cashel Mart on Saturday last and a full clearance at the Tipperary mart’s weekly calf sale.

Both shippers and farmers were active, which resulted in a good trade throughout.

Demand for beef calves remains exceptionally strong from farmers and they are also in the market for stronger Friesian bull calves too.

Continental calves saw the highest prices, with a share making over €500 and up to €640 paid for a Belgian Blue-cross bull. Traditional beef breed-crosses made up the bulk of calves on offer and the vast majority of these sold for between €200 and €400.

Friesian bulls varied, with the general run of shipping-type calves making from €100 to €200, while stronger calves made over €200, with the upper end breaking €300.

'Phenomenal trade'

Speaking after the sale, auctioneer Robert De Vere Hunt said: “Calves are a phenomenal trade this year. The return farmers are getting are unbelievable. It’s great to see it, especially when you think back to 12 months ago.

“Since January, a lot of farmers have bought calves. They’ve seen the returns for their weanlings last autumn or this spring, where they’re getting even one and a half times if not more than last November and they’re going back and reinvesting.

“I’ve noticed farmers bidding for stars now. A five-star Angus calf that was getting €60 to €70 last year is now getting €220 or €230 depending on the strength of the calf.”

He feels that the shortage of beef in Europe is a major factor in the Irish trade at present.

“When I look [at] the beef thing, I look outside Ireland. The green agenda came into Europe before here and there’s a deficit of cattle across Europe.

“You have bluetongue in France, England and Wales, which takes them out of the live trade, plus foot-and-mouth disease in Germany, Hungary and Slovakia so they’re out too. It means Ireland is the only gig in relation to livestock at the moment.

“The shippers have had to up their ante. We’re seeing that with coloured weanlings, Angus weanlings and year-and-a-half-old stock that are going out of the country.

“At the start of the year, everyone was worried about Holland going to be shut down, but that’s mainly irrelevant now and sexed semen has looked after the Friesian bull calf numbers. Hence, we’re seeing good Friesian bull calves, over 21 days old and they’ve been making over €300. Hopefully, those diseases stay out of the country. We could be catching up our tails for a few years here.

“It’s all a numbers game and I think TB is a contributing factor too. If even 80% of the reactors slaughtered last year were cows and due to calf this spring, that means we’re down over 30,000 calves.”

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