February 2007 Archives

Most farmers would struggle to justify paying more than £1400 for an in-calf heifer, but some cull cows are now hitting these dizzy heights.

Weighing in at 886kg an eight year old Belgian Blue sold at £1.64/kg compared to £1.50/kg paid during the same sale at Market Drayton Mart, Shropshire, for a 975kg Belgian Blue cull bull, fetched £1461.

The cow which was bought as a heifer in Belgium, is now en-route back to her homeland for processing having grossed £1451.

Following on from a successful Craven Champions day, Skipton auction mart are doing similar business in the dairy sector.

Dairy farmer Jeremy Taylor made it a record-breaking five-strong haul of Craven Dairy Auction championship victories at last Monday's show and sale when a total of 77 pedigree and commercial cattle represented the highest-ever entry since the reintroduction of the fixture at the beginning of 2005.

A home-bred pedigree Holstein Friesian heifer from Jeremy's Smellows herd at Small House, Broughton, near Skipton, won him his latest title and received the Craven Dairy Trophy from animal feeds supplier BOCM-Pauls.

Now I know Limmie's and Blonde's have built a bit of a reputation for being somewhat flighty, but this is actually a little scary....

A man is left fighting for his life last after a cow ran wild at a railway station having managed to escape from an market!

Demand for quality native cattle from German breeders seems to be soaring. We've already seen Galloway and Highland cattle head across the water and now the Herefords are next to begin their travels.

One of the UK's leading Hereford herds, J R B Wilson and Sons from Cowbog, Kelso have re-established links with Europe with a 17-month old bull and two heifers travelling to near Bremen in Northern Germany to Hergen Eickhorst, a regular buyer from the Wilson's Romany Herd prior to the EU Export ban in 1990.

Accompanying Romany 1 Classic was Romany 1 Cavalier, a son of senior stock bull Crickley 1 Figurehead, sold to Rinderproduktion Weigand, who have Germany's largest Hereford Herd of 100 cows south of Berlin. This five figure shipment arrived safely in Germany last Saturday.

As promised - a lovely video from Perth:

Supporters of the Whitebred Shorthorn Association turned out at Carlisle for this rare breed's spring fixture where bidding reached 2800gns for a bull from local breeders Messrs Hewson.

As the sire of the blue-grey suckler cow - once the bedrock of the hill cow sector - many believe the Whitebred Shorthorn may yet enjoy resurgence as low-cost sucklers attract more attention. But for now the breed remains in the hands of the few and it was the Hewson's Parton Spotlight that drew the highest bid selling to Planmajor Ltd., based on the west Cumbria coast at Holmrook.

Have finally managed to get the audio file off our "high-tech" equipment.

Here's the record 22,000gns Simmental bull getting sold by Auctioneer David Brown ...

Not quite the ecstatic trade that was last year, but Charolais breeders would have ended on a high following a solid trade for Charolais bulls at the February Perth sales, with 197 bulls levelling at an average £5426.

A top call of 32,000gns was given for the overall champion, Solitude Attaboy, came from John McMordie's Solitude herd of eight Charolais cows and 45 Herefords at Ballygowan, Northern Ireland.

As David Leggatt's voice rings out, we've got a new top price for Charolais bulls.

Maerdy Andes from Esmor Evans' string of cattle entered here, has just sold for 30,000gns to (if I caught it right over the speaker) Ian Thompson. This powerhouse of a bull, as described by David in bidding, is sired by Fairway Soprano and out of Maerdy Nosda.

Other leading prices include...

Gilbert Henderson's Sandleford Antrim for 12,000gns to A Davies, Powys
Messrs Rees' Pennal Adamos for 8000gns
B Mcallister and Sons' Burnside Albatross for 7500gns to A Lyburn, Blairgowrie
White's Balbithan Amazon for 6800gns to D W Sinclair, Orkney
W P Bruce's Balmyle Action for 6500gns to S Durno
J K Hunter's Hunters Alfred for 6000gns to Ian Maclean, Kent
W J Whyte's Hindstones Arabian for 5800gns to Greig Farms

Update..............South East breeders Mortimers Farms' have topped so far knocking down W S Oates' Ravensworth Alder for 16,000gns - not quite the top of 55,000gns which was acheived this time last year, but trade is definately going well so far.

And the choice of this bull has lived up to David Leggatt's expectations, as he sells with power, figures and solid breeding. Sired by Maerdy Shane, he is out of Oona of Ravensworth and sells with a terminal sire index of CH34 (pics sure to follow later!)

A couple of others have also gone through at 6500gns, so trade seems to be hotting up!

As anticipation builds round the Charolais stalls at Perth, both pedigree and commercial breeders and buyers are debating what the sale this morning will top yesterday's Simmental trade.

Having just caught five minutes with the one and only David Leggatt, he says yesterday's trade is all down to the demand for good, powerful bulls with strong figures and health status. "We've had a good show of bulls and this was reflected in the sale ring."

All bets on then please for the top price Charolais today?

Although not many Charolais females were forwarded for this year's Perth sales, it was one of Perthshire's leading pedigree buyers Adrian Ivory back round the sale ring selecting the finer genetics on offer.

Dunesk Victoria (pictured below), a powerful August 2004-born heifer from the Angus-based McMillan family took Adrian's eye as he paid 5500gns for the Moyness Statesman-sired heifer. Out of Dunesk Northstar, she sells having been AI'd to Burradon Talisman.

Bums, bums, bums....no don't worry I'm not on holiday looking at gorgeous male specimens on the beach, it's actually Perth Bull Sales in February (granted not as cold as I have witnessed on past ocassions)!!

And what a Perth it's been so far. Trade for Simmental females started well, but the real headline story is that the breed has set a new record of 22,000gns and boosted their average by more than £1000, pushing the £4000 average mark.

The sale topper came in the form of Omorga Samson (pictured below), a November 05 born bull from Northern Ireland based breeders Moore's of Co Tyrone, who sold to Adrain Ivory's noted herd in Perthshire. This Raceview King-sired bull is out of Cleenagh Daffodil and sold with terminal sire index of +22.

Having finished one of their best sales for many years with prices topping at 6,200gns, Galloway cattle breeders have turned a corner in terms of selling.

And in keeping with previous spends at Oban for Highland cattle, German breeders were back in force at Castle Douglas for quality Galloway genetics as well, as they helped tip heifer averages up by £113.

The top price of the day came at 6200gns for the supreme bull champion, the 19-month-old Ben Lomond Maximus shown by the Maxwell family from Blairvockie Farm, Drymen, Glasgow.

This was bought in a joint purchase by local breeders Messrs R & M Fergusson of Barlaes, Dalry, Castle Douglas, and Messrs J A Fergusson and Son of Nether Rusko, Gatehouse of Fleet.

Borderway Mart in Carlisle is beginning to set a trend when it comes to selling pedigree Limousin cattle.

Now joining the Harrison and Hetherington hall of fame which consists of names such as Wilodge Vantastic (42,000gns), Cloughhead Umpire (42,000gns), Fieldson Alfy (37,000gns) and of course the record breaking Haltcliffe Vermount (100,000gns), is Queenshead Altea.

Having taken the championship ticket at Friday's Limousin Society spring sale last week, Altea, from Pat Varley, sold for the days highest price of 52,000gns. Not bad going since Pat has a herd of just 4 cows!!

It's that time of year when the cheque books start coming out for potential show winners for both the summer and Christmas show season.

One market known for having some good quality youngstock on display is Skipton and their recent show and sale has been no exception.

Calderdale cattlemen claimed both championship and reserve championship honours on the recent Craven Champions Day, the annual high profile show and sale of store cattle with future show potential.

Adrian Leach, of Owlers Farm, Shackleton Hill, Hebden Bridge, landed supreme championship honours with his nine-month old Belgian Blue cross heifer, while fellow Hebden Bridge farmer, Brian Lund, of Walshaw Farm, took the reserve title with an eight-month old Parthenais cross (no doubt this could prove a contender for many any other breed titles on this year's circuit).

The champion, home-bred out of a Gelbvieh-cross cow sold for £1,100 to a show man from Lancashire.

I see the catalogue for the Border Belgian Blue Club's annual calf show is out. Anyone that knows me will know I have a hankering for the Blue and having looked at the catalogue, I'd say my money is on anything sired by Wilodge Ulex or the notorious Dafydd D'Ochain. I wouldn't be suprised to see the cheque books come out for a few sweet females as well, there are some good male and female lines among that list.

Congrats to winners of the Hawes Swaledale fat lamb classes.

Messers Dixon, Stainton won with thier pen of 10 lambs which weighed in at 49.9kg, selling for £56.50 to the judge, Paul Watson. The Dixon family also took second prize with a pen of 47.5kg lambs and third prize was won by Messrs Sunter, Raydale Grange.

With some 19 prices in excess of 2000gns, Oban has recently seen one of their better sales for Highland cattle. It was also good to see demand in the form of exports with German breeders making the journey over to secure some of the better genetics on offer.

Topping trade and heading across the water was Ceannard 4th of Glengorm. This rising three year old, pictured below, sold for 8000gns to Geisler Klosner, whose three purchases on the day came just short of £12,000.

Castle Douglas saw records smashed for the Luing breed at their society sale last week. Dirnanean Geldof, bred by Finlay and Judy McGowan sold for 14,000gns to the McNee family, who run the Benhar herd at Armdale.

Longevity is definately the key with this breeding line - Geldof is out of a 17-year old dam, who's 20-year old grandmother is still productive in the herd - I wonder how many other pedigree beef herds have cows lasting that well?

You think UK store buyers have it tough - check this site ...! Some mad person, sorry mad American, so that speaks volumes, paid $185,000 for a steer after it took a championship ticket at a show!!

Who says fashion isn't everything in the beef world??

Last week's trade for Limousin bulls at Perth saw just how fashion can change. History has shown the Black Limo hasn't been in demand round the sale rings, but bulls going under the hammer at 16,000gns and 12,000gns soon dispelled that myth!

The first one to set tongues wagging was Newhouse Black Angus from Bob and Drew Adam, which sold for the top price of the day at 16,000gns. As a predominantly red fan myself, I'm particualry impressed!

Well, it's the end of the first week of this year's Perth Bull Sales and here's some snaps of the top bids from the Angus and Shorthorn rings:

More pics ...