Weak Angus calves struggle to secure bids
“Weak dairy calves are the new Friesians,” warned mart managers as some farmers have had to bring their animals home after receiving no bids.
Waterford Ross Co Operative Marts turned away 150 calves at its latest sale, having reached its maximum capacity of 1,000 calves.
Mart manager Richard Kirwan told the Farming Independent that this has never happened at the mart before.
“The smaller Angus calves are the new Friesian,” he said. “A pig in a fancy dress is still a pig. Our sale practically doubled within a week.
“We had between 500-700 on the previous Saturday. Over 30 calves had no bids and were taken back home and we don’t expect to see those in the ring again. Buyers are wary as soon as they see the Friesian cross on the board.
Peak
“The best advice for the smaller calves is to put milk into them and get their weights up. We haven’t reached the peak yet and we could see more sales like this.
“Word will get out about the smaller calves and maybe less of them will show up.”
Mr Kirwan said better-presented calves are making as much as €140/head.
Jerh O’Sullivan from Macroom Mart said that weaker calves make up a “tiny percentage” of overall calf sales, but those that are brought to market are performing very poorly, with farmers accepting €1 for calves.
“I siphoned about 20 of these calves at the door and advised them to come back next week,” he said. “Certain farmers were willing to take the gamble and we had around 10 lots out of 250 in that bracket, with some selling for €1-€2.
“Regardless of breed, any calf over 50kg seems to be fine. We are at peak now with 950 calves at our latest sale. With sailing restrictions, those calves were back with the lighter ones, making between €5-€25.”
Maurice Brosnan from Gortatlea
Mart said nearly 1,100 calves were presented at the latest sale, with the mart having a maximum capacity of 1,500.
“I wouldn’t want any more Friesian bulls — they’re very hard sold,” said Mr Brosnan. “If the Friesian bulls are nice and straight, there’s farmers to buy them. If they’re fairly good, shippers will buy them.
“There’s some people bringing out Friesian bulls which are no more than acceptable. About 20-30 of them were of that quality. A lot of these calves are given away free to a good home.
“There’s people ringing, giving out about the price. I tell them we can’t hold on. I think last week will be the last difficult week.
“The people producing the right calf from the right cow and doing the proper job on them are getting well paid.
“Labour is everything. There’s people with 500600 cows when they should have 200. They can’t cope.”
Seamus O’Keefe from Kanturk Mart said no calves went home unsold at the latest sale, with quality Whitehead calves making €350-€360.
“Good-quality Friesian calves over 65kg are making €110. Last week, calves under 50kg weren’t getting bids,” he said.
Nelius McAuliffe from Castleisland Mart said the better Friesians are making from €50-€130.
“The shipping calves are making from €20€50. A few lighter calves are making between €5-€10, but there were very few of them, thanks be to God,” he said.
“The better Whitehead calves made €370-€380 and the lighter ones made €180-€250. Our maximum capacity is for up to 1,700 and we’ll probably reach that next week.”
Colm McEvoy of Ballinakill Mart, Co Laois, said he doesn’t run a dairy-calf sale due to a lack of demand and the cost of installing the required facilities.
“Farmers should be paid to take them [weak calves]. Say you were going to take on between 50100 of these weak calves, you’d want to be getting them for absolutely nothing,” he said.
“To put money into a premises and set it up and next thing, here you are with parishes of rubbish Friesian bull calves that nobody wants.
“If nobody wants them, then how do you sell them?
“We have a weanling sale every Saturday morning and there are customers queuing up to buy them.
“Last Saturday, we had 80-100 weanling bulls, with customers queued up around the ring to buy them and online as well — freewheel all the way.”