Elphin Mart has seen a huge increase in dry cow numbers in the last few weeks.

Northern customers have been very active both ringside and on Martbids online and this, combined with good factory agent activity, has meant cows were up in price over the last two weeks.

This November 2014-born Limousin cow weighed 630kg and sold for €1,200 (€1.90/kg).

Good-quality continental cows in the 700kg to 800kg bracket were hitting €2/kg.

Lesser-quality cows were back at €1.60/kg to €1.80/kg.

This July 2013-born Limousin cow weighed 695kg and sold for €1,240 (€1.78/kg).

A lot of these cows are destined for direct slaughter, but, at this money on a liveweight basis, cows would need to be making €3.80/kg to get out, so there is obviously a lot of deals being completed with feeders at the moment.

This February 2011 -born Charolais cow weighed 740kg and sold for €1,420 (€1.92/kg).

Weanlings

In the weanling ring, quality was probably back a little on previous weeks.

However, the right calves were still hitting €2.30/kg to €2.50/kg.

This February 2013-born Hereford cow weighed 710kg and sold for €1,050 (€1.47/kg).

This was being paid for calves around the 300kg mark.

As you went up in weight, the 400kg calf levelled off at €2.20/kg.

This was Elphin’s last week of sales in 2020, with the opening sale of 2021 taking place on Monday 11 January, with 100 in-calf heifers entered in the sale.

This 2009-born Simmental x cow weighed 810kg and sold for €1,280 (€1.58/kg).