Camera at the Mart: over 1,800 calves on offer in Cahir Mart

For the second Friday night sale in a fortnight, Cahir Mart had over 1,800 calves go through the ring.

Good Friesian bulls were making from €300 to €400/head.

Prices for lighter ones were generally from €180 to €230/head, while Friesian-crosses were below that range.

Heavier traditional beef breed crosses were exceeding €600 on occasion, with lighter calves making similar money to the best of Friesians, with up to €450 available for Angus- and Hereford-crosses weighing up to 55kg.

The highest price of €880 was paid for a three-week-old 72kg Belgian Blue-cross heifer.

Following the sale, mart manager Brian Murphy said: “We had 1,840 and 1,869 the week before, so I’d say this is the peak.

“Friday night’s sale will tell a lot about where we are. It felt like the peak came fast.

“We had 60 calves at the first sale on 10 February and had 600, 1,100 and 1,600 calves in the following three weeks.

Out early

“Cows were all out early last year and were in good condition, so a after a good breeding, calving started away in January.

“It’s been a very positive start so far, with huge numbers for here and people are happy with prices. There was never a start like it with the prices that we’ve seen.

“We’ve had good demand from the west for calves and we had a few northern buyers down and a lot of farmers and shippers were buying away again.

“Farmer customers were very active over the last few weeks. They were aiming for the early calf and trying to get them in for a deadline of St Patrick’s Day.”