The in-calf heifer trade and suckler trade in general has continued to be really solid in 2022.
Traditionally, a lot of these sales take place in November and December, but a few sales in the last few weeks have reported very good demand for suckler replacement stock.
Cull cows continue to be an excellent trade and, in some instances, a suckler farmer could replace a cull cow with an in-calf heifer without paying anything extra depending on weight and quality of both.
Elphin Mart held a special sale of calved and in-calf heifers for local farmer Fred Dolan on Monday night.
The sale achieved a top price of €2,620 for a heifer with calf at foot, while the in-calf heifers topped out at €2,200.
Elphin also had a special spring sale of over 500 bullocks on Wednesday.
Mart manager Kevin Caslin said: “There was great demand again for that bullock over 600kg heading for the shed.”
The general run of top-end bullocks over 600kg were hitting €2.80/kg to €3.00/kg.
At the time of going to print, the top price was an April 2020-born Charolais-cross bullock weighing 780kg that sold for €2,250 (€2.88/kg).
Good-quality lighter bullocks in the 500-600kg category were hitting €3/kg.