Martin O'Connor held his annual sale of in-calf heifers last night in Elphin Mart and they didn’t disappoint.

Forty-five heifers were catalogued for the sale, ranging in age from January 2015-born heifers to September 2016-born heifers.

Martin has built up a reputation over the past number of years of producing a specialised heifer which are sought after by fatstock show people and top end commercial producers. While not everybody’s cup of tea, the sale attracted a huge crowd, with some having trouble getting into the sales ring at one stage.

Best sale in months

Mart manager Gerry Connellan said: “We’ve had enquiries from all over about this sale. We even had a few buyers from across the water who went home with heifers.”

Elphin Mart has become synonymous with top-quality cattle over the years and it’s the home of good continental cattle.

Connellan said: “It’s great to see a sale like this after all the bad talk around suckling. It’s great to be rewarded for quality cattle and as a mart manager I get a great sense of satisfaction after a good sale like this. Everybody has done their job well and the seller and the buyers are gone home happy."

Connellan is a man on top of his game. Getting 400 farmers into a mart for 45 cattle on a cold November night and then knowing his customers during the 90 minute sale isn’t easy but everything went like clockwork.

Top price of sale

Tom Cox comments

Auctioneer Tom Cox said: “It’s as good a trade as I have witnessed in a long time. I had three and four men for every heifer here tonight. There’s a lot of men gone home without heifers actually.”

Speaking on the cattle trade in general, he said: “Quality is becoming more and more important. We are seeing more and more dairy-bred cattle coming to marts and they are struggling but maybe that’s the way it should be.

"Quality is becoming more and more important and the men waving their index finger and winking at me are willing to go that bit extra for that top-class animal.

"People say suckling is dead but you see here tonight if these farmers got any chance at all, they want to stay farming. It’s in the people around here, and good stock will always be a good trade around this town. The Limousin x heifer with a touch of Simmental was a real good seller, with less appetite for pure Belgian Blue types."

Top prices

Top price of the sale was €4,300 for a July 2015-born red Limousin heifer with her time up to EBY on 14/11/2018.

Two heifers hit the €4,000 mark, both in-calf to EBY and both with their time up in November.

Overall, there was a really good solid trade throughout, with 10 heifers heading across the border to Northern Ireland and three heading across the water to England.

The sale average was €2,781 with a 100% clearance. This was up almost €500 on last year’s sale.

See Adam Woods' live sale coverage on Twitter below:

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