There was an increased entry of heifers in Skibbereen on Friday last for the west Cork mart’s annual fatstock show and sale.

Despite this, champion of the show and sale went to an April 2024-born Limousin-cross bullock.

Weighing 785kg, he sold for €4,600 (€5.86/kg) and was property of Macroom-based Noel McSweeney.

Reserve champion went to a January 2024-born Belgian Blue-cross heifer, owned by Mervyn Busteed from Bandon.

The heifer went on to top the sale. The hammer came down at €7,900 (€10.26/kg).

She was one of two heifers from the same stable to sell for over €7,000.

The other, a March 2024-born Belgian Blue-cross, weighed 665kg and sold for €7,900 (€11.43/kg).

Breeding heifers proved popular sellers throughout, as they sold for between €6.20/kg and €11.43/kg.

Good appetite

Following the sale, manager Keith Mullaney said: “We had 80 cattle in the fatstock and all sold on fairly well.

“There was good appetite for heifers, with buyers from all over the country and a lot of the heifers sold here were bought by farmers in the west and northeast.

“I was a little nervous with all the talk around bluetongue, but it didn’t impact on the trade at all.

“We changed things up a bit this year and included a new class for halter-trained breeding heifers.

“That had good entries and we had big competition in the butcher’s heifer class, with 11 in it.

“There was a lot of new vendors, with some travelling from Kerry and Limerick to take part too, along with new buyers.

“There’s good confidence in the suckler sector. The sale is getting that bit bigger the last three or four years and there’s more young farmers who have a good interest in these types of heifers and they’re using a lot of AI breeding and there were plenty young farmers investing in nice heifers.

“We had a lot of beef cows in the dry cow ring too making €3,000 to €3,500 so that goes a long way when farmers are looking to replace that cow.”