Breeding cattle trade round up

Breeding cattle trade has, no unexpectedly, taken a bit of a knock in recent months as prime cattle prices have been knocked and the subsequent store and suckled calf prices have fallen.

Trade at Dingwall yesterday saw 340 head sold with heifers with calves at foot peaking at £1700 for a Simmental cross heifer with a male calf at foot. Heifers with heifer calves at foot sold to a top of £1600 for another Simmental cross entry.

In the cows on offer the best was a £1500 bid for a Simmental cross cow with a male calf, while a best for those suckling heifers was a £1400 for an Aberdeen-Angus cross.

In-calf heifers were led at £1400 for Simmental crosses, while in-calf cows peaked at £950 for Simmental crosses also. Bulling heifers were led at £1000 by British Blue crosses.

At Stirling on Saturday trade was a shade stonger with the heifers led at £2200 by a Limousin cross heifer with a Limousin sired bull calf at foot, others of similar breeding weren’t far behind with Limousin cross heifers in demand.

Best of the cows and calves was a £1550 bid for a Limousin cross cows suckling a Charolais cross bull calf, with the bulling heifers selling to a peak of £750 and in-calf heifers making up to £1100.