Elphin Mart hosted a special sale of high-end maiden heifers the majority of which came from Galway farmer Tom Corbett last Friday night.

A big difference was evident in the weanling sales this year between the top calf and the average calf with as much as €250/head between high-end and average weanlings.

This January 2020-born Charolais heifer sold for €1,920.

Friday night’s sale had a lot of customers around the ring, including the commercially minded farmer looking for good straight replacement heifers to breed good weanlings, the specialist in-calf heifer producers looking next year’s crop and the show calf producers willing to spend big to get the potential show calf maker.

This May 2020-born Limousin heifer sired by Tomschoice Imperial (LM2117) sold for €3,300.

Everybody dug deep with the general run of heifers ranging in price from €2,000 to €3,000 with a few exceptional heifers making over this. The highlight of the night was a Limousin x Belgium Blue “roan” heifer selling for €7,100 to an NI customer.

This October 2019-born Limousin x Belgium Blue heifer sired by Loyal (LM4184) sold for €2,350.

On the night, 40 heifers were exported to NI. Elphin mart manager Kevin Caslin said “We have unbelievable demand for top quality heifers with big interest from the north for those special heifers.

This September 2019-born Limousin x Belgium Blue heifer sold for €4,000.

The next big heifer night in Elphin is this Friday night 29th October with 50 in calf heifers in the sale. Martin O Connors sale of 56 in calf heifers takes place on Friday 5th November at 7pm.

This January 2020-born Belgium Blue heifer sold for €2,900.