Camera at the Mart: Herbie’s heifers hit high notes

The in-calf heifer trade continues to perform well, with a number of very good sales taking place over the last few days.

Confidence is high in the suckler sector at the moment. Top-quality weanlings have been a very good trade over the last few weeks.

Cull cows have also been a good trade, with good-quality suckler cull cows coming into in excess of €1,500/head in recent weeks.

Taking both these factors into account, it goes in some way to explaining that Carrigallen Mart hosted over 60 in-calf heifers from local farmer Herbie Griffith on Friday night.

The sale had a lot of top-end Limousin, Charolais, Belgian Blue and Simmental heifers, with the majority in-calf to bulls such as Lodge Hamlet and EBY.

Top call on the night went to a May 2019-born Limousin heifer in-calf to EBY and due on 23 October that sold for €5,000.

Next highest call went to a February 2019-born Limousin roan heifer in-calf to EBY for November 2021 selling for €4,650. Followed closely behind that was another roan Limousin heifer in-calf to Lodge Hamlet for November selling for €4,600.

Heifers were sold all over Ireland, with a number exported to Northern Ireland on the night. Lot 12 in the sale, a February 2019-born Charolais heifer in-calf to Cavelands Jolly, sold for €2,700, with the full proceeds of this heifer going to the Cavan-Monaghan palliative care unit.

The majority of the heifers sold for between €2,000 and €3,000/head. Almost all heifers were sold on the night.

Carrigallen Mart has two special sales coming up in the next few days – a special sale of dry cows on Thursday 21 October and a special sale of suckler cows and calves on Monday 25 October at 7pm.