Top price of €3,400 at Waterford Ross Mart’s dairy show and sale

Waterford Ross Mart held its annual dairy show and sale on Friday (February 10) with 73 head on offer at the sale.

The sale included freshly calved heifers and cows, along with a number of in-calf heifers.

The spring is a busy time on farms, as calving gets underway on a lot of dairy farms, but early sales in the spring offer an opportunity to replace some cows or increase numbers.

To get some insight into the trade at Saturday’s sale, Agriland spoke with the mart’s manager Richard Kirwan, who said: “We had 73 dairy stock on offer with an unbelievable trade for our annual dairy show and sale.

“There was 100% clearance on the day, with a top price of €3,400 paid for the overall champion.”

Waterford Ross

Top price of the sale was achieved by a freshly calved heifer from the Coolnagree herd of Seamus O’Leary.

Prior to the sale, she was selected as the show champion. The pedigree Holstein heifer has an economic breeding (EBI) of €130, and sold for €3,400.

Moving to some of the other stock on offer on Saturday, the freshly calved British Friesian-type heifers made from €1,800 to €2,525.

The Holstein-type heifers that were on offer made from €2,200 up to the top price of the sale of €3,400.

The cows on offer made from €1,500 up to a top price of €2,350.

The in-calf heifers on offer made from €1,500 up to a top price of €2,225 for the heifer pictured below.

Upcoming sale

The next dairy sale at the mart takes place this Friday (February 17). This sale will contain 50 elite pedigree-registered dairy heifers from two well-known herds in the region.

There will be 25 heifers from the Beechlands herd, which has an average production of 8,851kg of milk and 683kg of milk solids.

The Coolnagree herd will also have 25 heifers on offer at the sale, with average production of this herd being 8,850kg of milk and 678kg of milk solids.

All the heifers on offer at this sale are suitable for export.