Camera at the Mart: flying trade at Gortatlea E and U grade heifer sale

There was a solid display of heifers at Gortatlea Mart’s special E and U grade heifer sale last week and the trade didn’t disappoint.

Charolais- and Limousin-crosses dominated the numbers, with a sprinkling of Belgian Blue and Parthenaise dotted among the pens too.

Suckler farmers can sometimes feel forgotten in the dairy-dominated southwest Munster, but their focus on breeding good-quality continental stock paid off at this sale.

For the exceptionally well-conformed U and E grade heifer, €3/kg was freely passed, while the €4/kg mark was beaten by a number of heifers.

Spring 2021-born heifers dominated numbers and met strong demand, with €2.80/kg to €2.95/kg the going rate for most of the top end of R grading heifers.

Plainer continental heifers were making €2.50/kg to €2.70/kg.

Moving to dairy-cross stock, there was good appetite for Angus- and Hereford-cross weanlings.

At the upper end of these, a large group of well-conformed black whiteheads came within a few cents of breaking €2.60/kg.

In the main, these traditional beef-crosses were making from €2/kg up to €2.50/kg.

‘Excellent cattle’

Speaking after the sale, mart manager, Maurice Brosnan quipped: “We’ve excellent cattle in the south too. We’ve sold over 2,000 cattle per week here since the new year.

“Cattle are an unbelievable trade at the moment. I’ve never seen such a want among buyers for strong weanlings and forward stores.

“They’re as dear as I’ve ever seen. At this stage, I expect beef price to move on rather than come back.”

The presence of northern buyers has helped, as Brosnan acknowledged.

“They’re very active buyers for good-quality continental cattle, especially coloured cull cows.

“There’s not much difference between the cull cow and store trade in the ring at the moment, as €2.20/kg to €2.50/kg would buy most of them.

“It’s great to see that the good prices for beef cattle is feeding down the line, with calves doing well.

“We’ve a very firm demand here for the coloured calf especially.

“Everyone is looking for a stronger calf, so it pays the dairy farmer to feed them well.”