The sun was shining around Clones Mart on Thursday (March 18) as AgriLand visited the Monaghan mart when it played host to its weekly sale of cattle.

There was a nice selection in the cattle brought forward, with heifers overtaking the majority of the supply on offer. The numbers of heavy or forward-type cattle were notably low this week.

Starting off with the dry cows, there was over 20 of these females up for grabs on Thursday.

Prices for continentals started off at €1.51/kg and sold up to €1.88/kg. The Friesian cows sold from €1.51/kg back to €0.77/kg.

There were some in-calf cows on offer that saw prices topped at €1,580 for a young Charolais cow in-calf to a Charolais bull. One Hereford stock bull sired by F.H. William sold for €1,400.

Click on a thumbnail in the gallery (below) to open up a full-size image; once opened you can scroll sideways to see the next picture. Refer to each caption to see details of each lot, including the hammer price.

Heifers

In the store cattle trade, prices seemed to be slightly back in comparison to the trade the week before – however there was still some good money paid for stock.

Heifers weighing in at 400-500kg were seeing bids beginning at €2.18/kg and moving up to €2.55/kg for continentals, with one outlying price of €2.08/kg paid. Hereford heifers in the same weight bracket were selling at €1.89-2.04/kg.

Moving up the scales to the 500-600kg category, continental heifers sold at an average of €2.17/kg up to €2.35/kg – one or two prices peaked up to €2.47/kg.

The top price paid for a forward heifer was €1,690 or €2.41/kg for a Charolais weighing 700kg.

Sample heifer prices: 

  • Charolais: 432kg – €1,080 or €2.50/kg;
  • Limousin: 456kg – €1,050 or €2.30/kg;
  • Hereford: 456kg – €930 or €2.03/kg;
  • Charolais: 468kg – €1,050 or €2.24/kg;
  • Charolais: 494kg – €1,160 or €2.34/kg;
  • Charolais: 530kg – €1,250 or €2.35/kg;
  • Limousin: 550kg – €1,330 or €2.41/kg;
  • Limousin: 556kg – €1,250 or €2.24/kg;
  • Charolais: 570kg – €1,260 or €2.21/kg.

Bullocks

Turning to the bullocks, they were not as plentiful as the heifers, yet some quality stores passed through the ring.

Light continental bullocks (under 400kg) ranged from €2.13/kg all the way up to €2.62/kg – with the average hitting closer to €2.50/kg.

There was a shortage of bullocks weighing between 400-500kg – the averages paid were hitting €2.22/kg for mainly Limousin-cross stores.

The 500-600kg continental bullock was selling from €2.13/kg up to €2.22/kg – with Hereford crosses peaking at €2.13/kg.

Topping the trade on Thursday was a Charolais cross bullock weighing in at 800kg and selling for €2,000 or €2.51/kg. Again, these forward cattle over 600kg were scarce this week and sold at an average of €2.15/kg.

Sample bullock prices:

  • Charolais: 316kg – €830 or €2.62/kg;
  • Limousin: 285kg – €730 or €2.56/kg;
  • Limousin: 475kg – €1,050 or €2.21/kg;
  • Limousin: 546kg – €1,190 or €2.17/kg;
  • Belgian Blue: 540kg – €1,200 or €2.22/kg;
  • Hereford: 550kg – €1,130 or €2.05/kg;
  • Charolais: 550kg – €1,190 or €2.16/kg;
  • Limousin: 570kg – €1,220 or €2.14/kg;
  • Angus: 604kg – €1,270 or €2.10/kg;
  • Limousin: 608kg – €1,280 or €2.10/kg.