Camera at the Mart: cows set the headlines in Headford

A vibrant trade for cull cows dominated the sale highlights at Headford Mart’s opening sale of 2025.

Top-quality U and R+ grading cows sold from €2.85/kg to a top of €3.22/kg, with a number of heavy cows weighing in excess of 800kg topping €2,500 and selling to a top of €2,980 for a five-year-old Charolais cow weighing 925kg.

Plainer-quality cows also sold in a firm trade, ranging from €2.25/kg to €2.60/kg for lesser-conformed cows or aged cows with a lower cover of flesh.

A few Friesian cows with good flesh cover sold from €1.90/kg to €1.98/kg.

Newly appointed mart manager Noel Considine commented that the prices were underpinned by a combination of keen demand from factory agents and the fact that cows were of excellent quality.

Agents also exhibited an insatiable appetite for any slaughter-fit and short-keep bullocks and heifers on offer.

Top prices for quality U and R+ grading Charolais and Limousin bullocks averaged in excess of €3/kg, with such stock selling from €2.85/kg to €3.38/kg, with few bullocks falling below the €2.80/kg mark.

Demand for stores was equally strong, with prices falling within a similar price range, with the exception of the highlight of the bullock sale being €1,720, or €4/kg, paid for a 515kg Limousin-cross.

Top prices for heifers were a shade higher than bullocks on a price-per-kilo basis, with the best-quality U grading lots selling from €3.20/kg to €3.40/kg, while R grading types sold from €2.80/kg to €3.20/kg.

A selection of forward Aberdeen Angus-cross heifers weighing 450kg to 520kg sold in the main from €2.85/kg to €3/kg, while some plainer-quality types sold back to €2.30/kg.

Sheep sale

The first sheep sale of 2025 saw an entry of just shy of 250 head on offer and excellent demand for all categories of stock.

Heavy slaughter-fit sheep weighing from 52kg to 56kg ranged in price from €215 to a top of €229 for 56kg lambs, while lighter lots weighing 48kg to 50kg sold from €195 to €208.

Lambs weighing 45kg to 47kg sold from the low-€170s to mid-€180s, with store lambs selling from €3.40/kg all the way to €4/kg.

Meanwhile, cull ewes sold from €2.30/kg to €2.45/kg for quality ewes weighing 80kg to 85kg or from €188 to €206 per head.

A dispersal sale of 55 in-lamb ewes (hoggets to second-crop) due to lamb the first week of February takes place on Saturday 11 January.