Road Trip is Justfied by B&W Boom

Road Trip is Justfied by B&W Boom

AUCTION PRICES vindicated one Sussex farmer’s decision to transport more than 200 head of Holsteins to Wales for sale

Strong bidding saw £259 cows and freshly calved heifers average £972, with seven served heifers levelling at £802, to yield an overall average of £968 for 266 head sold. The auctioneers had been hoping for £700-£750 a head to justify the mileage.

“Wales hasn’t had many auctions this year, and we knew there would be strong demand,” said David Jones of auctioneer Norton & Brooksbank, which handled the sale jointly with Bob Jones Prytherch of Carmarthen

Full Production

 “These were good cows, young and in full production. We decided it was better to take them to the marketplace rather than expect the marketplace to come to them.”

Wales has lost a large number of cows to TB, leaving farmers with compensation and fewer stock. Long-term producers are now seeking to build herds and quota ahead of the March 2005 deadline, against which single farm payment values will be determined.

 The day”s top price was 1650gns and almost half the entry achieved over 1000gns. Nine realised 1400gns or more to mostly local buyers from Pembrokeshire. “People are hungry for cattle there,” said auctioneer Tom Brooksbank. “We wouldn’t have made anything like that amount of money in Sussex.”

The remainder of Tony Penrose’s 500-cow herd from Chiddingly, East Sussex, will be dispersed at Carmarthen next spring.