Cows on offer were pedigree Holstein, non registered Holstein or else Montebeliarde crosses.

Topping the sale at £2,000 (€2,632) was a December 2012 born pedigree Holstein cow. She was sired by Loydie and calved on 19 April. On Thursday she yielded 49.9 litres and in her last lactation she put 7,300 litres in the tank.

There was a fairly large crowd gathered around the ring for the sale of the good quality stock. Some bidders were there to do business in earnest with bids for the top selling cow for example quickly going up in £100s until the eventual selling price was reached.

Strong prices were paid for other pedigree Holsteins including £1,720 (€2,263) for an October 2012 born cow sired by McCormick and due to calve to Massey in late October. She calved last November and is projected to do 12,103 litres this lactation.

The Montebeliardes sold well too. A 75% bred Montebeliarde sold for £1,480 (€1,947). The November 2011 born cow is due to calve to Aftershock in September and is projected to yield 9,988 litres this lactation.

Younger cows naturally sold well however the highest selling lots were well bred and high yielding sorts, typically over £1,200 (€1,579) for cows that could have been four or five years old.

A full report from Friday's sale will feature in next week's Irish Farmers Journal and on www.farmersjournal.ie