Camera at the Mart: early calving heifers in demand in Elphin

Elphin Mart held its first sale of 2025 last Friday night, with a special sale of over 100 in-calf heifers for Roscommon farmer Michael Doorley.

Michael has been having a special sale of in-calf heifers for a number of years and has built up a strong customer base.

The sale saw a 100% clearance rate, with the average price coming in at €2,600.

A number of heifers travelled north, with the majority staying local.

The heifers weren’t the specialised Belgian Blue heifers that you sometimes see at these special in-calf sales, but more a good straight commercial farmer’s heifer and the ring was full of commercial farmers looking for good R grading heifers to fit into their suckler herd.

For the part-time farmer or for farmers who don’t want hassle at calving, they were probably a better buy than some of the extreme muscled types that are selling at some sales.

At €2,600, if a cow goes wrong, it’s not the end of the world, but at €4,600, it’s a different story.

Top call on the night went to an April 2022-born Limousin heifer scanned in-calf eight months to an easy calving pedigree Limousin bull selling for €3,680.

The top heifers in the sale all crossed the €3,000 barrier, with lesser-quality heifers selling for between €2,000 and €2,500.

Speaking to the Irish Farmers Journal, Elphin Mart manager Ciaran Lynch said: “We were delighted with the sale, with some great prices being paid for the better-quality heifers.

“Dry cows continue to be an exceptional trade, so that means those farmers selling cull cows have a strong hand when they come back around the springer ring.

“We definitely saw a bigger demand for the earlier calving heifers at Friday night’s sale, with anything calving in February commanding the top prices.

“We had a few repeat customers back to buy a few heifers on the back of previous purchases doing well for them and that’s what you want to see.”