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.

This March 2019-born Simmental heifer sold in-calf to EBY with her time up on 25 March 2022 for €1,800.

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.

This May 2019-born Simmental heifer sold with a January-born Limousin heifer calf at foot for €2,220.

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.

This July 2019-born Simmental heifer was sold in-calf to the pedigree Limousin bull with her time up on 11 February for €2,120.

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.

This October 2019-born Limousin first-calver sold with a Limousin heifer calf at foot for €2,620.

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.

This May 2019-born Limousin heifer sold in-calf to an easy calving Charolais stock bull due to calve in mid-March for €1,480.