Camera at the Mart: in-calf heifers top out at €5,950 in Elphin

Elphin Mart kicked off its sales year with the annual in-calf heifer sale of Laurence Doorley.

Laurence has been selling in-calf heifers at the western mart for many years, procuring 100 heifers at various sales before putting them in-calf to easy-calving Limousin sires.

Laurence had 102 heifers on offer on Friday last, with next year’s heifers already assembled.

Unlike many other in-calf heifer sales, Laurence focuses on more commercial farmer-type heifers, with mainly R grading Limousin heifers purchased, with repeat custom seen each year.

Of the 102 heifers, all bar 11 were Limousin and Limousin-cross types, with the remaining heifers a mixture of Belgian Blue, Charolais, Salers and Simmental-crosses.

The majority of heifers on offer were spring and summer 2023-born, with some stronger heifers having been born in late 2022.

Heifers mainly weighed in the 600kg to 700kg bracket, with some heifers above and below this weight.

The majority of heifers were due to calve within the following two months, with a small number of later-calving heifers included.

A total clearance of 90% was recorded, with a mixture of online bidding via Martbids and ringside bidders, with ringside buyers accounting for 50% of the purchases (57) split across 20 different buyers, with nine of these purchasing more than one heifer.

The sale average on a price-per-kg basis sat at a healthy €6.22/kg, with the top third of heifers selling for €7.25/kg, with the bottom third price-wise sitting at €5.17/kg.

Four heifers sold for €5,000 or greater, with a further 32 heifers selling for between €4,000 and €5,000/head. Some 20 heifers sold for less than €3,000, with the remaining selling between €3,000 and €4,000/head.

While heifers were generally uniform in shape and weight, lesser prices recorded were obviously for some plainer or lighter types, with later-calving lots also seeing slightly less bite from buyers.

Top call on the night was a Limousin-cross heifer scanned eight-and-a-half-months in-calf. Born May 2023 and weighing 685kg, she realised €5,950 (€8.69/kg), being knocked down to a ringside buyer.

This was also the top recorded on a price-per-kg basis.

The second-highest price was for a U grading Limousin-cross heifer born May 2023 and weighing 680kg, selling to a ringside bidder for €5,200 (€7.65/kg).