There was a full house around the suckler-cow ring at Carrigallen Mart on Monday evening, March 28, as a special suckler sale got underway at the Co. Leitrim venue.

The sale attracted particular attention as it featured both a clearance sale and a reduction sale of quality suckler progeny from two farmers in the locality.

While these two farmers may have been scaling back their suckler enterprises, the demand and interest from farmers on the night showed that confidence in sucklers remains strong in Carrigallen and the surrounding region.

Before the suckler sale got underway, the weekly sale of heavier-type heifers took place with R and U-grade animals composing the largest part of the sale.

Sample prices from the heifer sale:

  • This 560kg Charolais heifer made €1,460 or €2.61/kg
  • This 585kg Charolais heifer made made €1,500 or €2.56/kg
  • This 545kg Charolais made €1,500 or €2.75/kg
  • This 640kg Limousin heifer made €1,680 or €2.63/kg
  • This 455kg roan-type Charolais-cross heifer made €1,060 or €2.33/kg
  • This 435kg Charolais heifer sold for €1,140 €2.62/kg

Once the heifers had passed through the ring, next up was the sucklers and the clearance sale featured an impressive herd of pedigree registered and non-registerd Simmental cows.

Auctioneer Eamonn Gaffney had his work cut out taking bids from all angles.

The cows were evidently of super breeding and possessed great length and shape, however some of the cows were well aged with the oldest cow in the clearance sale over nine years old.

Some of the cows in the clearance sale had calves at-foot, while others were in-calf and there was also a few dry cows.

One of the stand-out prices was paid for a 2014-born pedigree non-registered cow (not in-calf) weighing 900kg, selling for €2,200 or €2.44/kg.

This 900kg cow sold for €2,200 or €2.44/kg

Cow-calf pairings attracted particular interest also, with a few very impressive outfits going through the ring at the sale.

Sample prices for cow-calf pairings:

  • This 2015-born cow with a bull calf at-foot sold for €1,450
  • This 2014-born cow with a heifer calf at-foot sold for €1,600
  • This 2019-born cow with a bull calf at-foot sold for €1,580
  • This 2017-born cow with a twin heifer and bull calf at-foot made €1,820
  • This 2018-born 4-star cow with a heifer calf at-foot made €2,100

The sale also featured a number of Simmental-bred cows which were seven months in-calf to a pedigree Simmental stockbull (which was on sale on the night). These ranged in price from €1,480, to €1,280 for the older-type cows.

Carrigallen Mart hosts two weekly cattle sales. Monday evenings is the weekly sale of strong heifers, bullocks, bulls, sucklers and dry cows.

On Saturdays, the mart hosts a weekly sale of suck calves and runners. This sale gets underway at 10:00a.m, with weanling bulls and weanling heifers at 11:00a.m.

CARRIGALLEN MART