Dairy cattle were a modest trade at the dispersal sale of the milking herd and young stock on the farm of Jamie Semple near Larne last Thursday. Health reasons forced the sale of the 70-cow milking herd, which is yielding 9,000 litres at 4.52% butterfat and 3.21% protein. The herd was a mixture of pedigree Holstein cows and also non-pedigree cows mostly sired by a pure British Friesian bull. The herd is calving all year round, with a large proportion due from January to March.

Overall, 55 cows sold averaged 739gns with young, well-bred cows making the best prices and several older cows being passed at low prices. The sale topped out at 1,300gns, paid twice for two cows.

The first was a May 2011-born cow, Monamore Jeeves Lulu, bred by Tom Kelly from Co Louth. She is ending her second lactation at 8,893 litres and due to calve down in February. The other top price was a non-pedigree heifer sired by Laurelhill Ale, from the Fay cow family of Brian Mawhinney’s Laurelhill herd. She is due to calve again in April and projected to yield 8,746 litres this lactation.

Most young stock sold were sired by Laurelhill Ale and all springing heifers were served by the stock bull on the farm, Priestland Attitude. Average price for 28 springing heifers was 701gns with the top price of 1,020gns paid for a heifer due to calve in January.

In total, 35 bulling heifers averaged 521gns and a further 35 heifer calves under 15 months old averaged 380gns.

Machinery

The milking parlour and machinery was also sold on the day with VAT and an additional 5% fees to be paid. The 14-unit swingover quick release DeLaval parlour and feeding system made £46,800. The parlour was installed in 2012 and is fully computerised with automatic drop clusters, cluster removers and milk recording.

The DeLaval drafting gate was sold separately and made £3,000. A 6,000-litre Mueller bulk tank and a 2011 Redrock 12-cube diet feeder were both passed at £5,000.

A 1997 John Deere 6230 with 12,000 hours was sold for £8,600 and a 2013 Redrock 2050 slurry tanker went for £7,500. A 2013 John Deere 6600 with 1,890 hours was passed at £25,000.