Dairy show champion sells for £3,100 in Shrewsbury as demand outstrips supply
Auctioneers Halls are appealing for more dairy cattle for their weekly Tuesday sale as demand is outstripping supply.
Yesterday's dairy show and sale at Shrewsbury Auction Centre saw a top price of more than £3,000.
And nine of the 14 quality heifers on offer exceeded £2,380 to six different buyers.
“We need more dairy cattle, especially fresh calved, to satisfy buyer demand, as there is no doubting the buying power week in week out at Shrewsbury,” said Jonny Dymond, Halls’ senior auctioneer and Shrewsbury Auction Centre manager.
“Entries are needed for cataloguing by 12 noon on the Friday before the sale.”
The pre-sale show yesterday was judged by Alan Tomlinson and he awarded the champion prize to top heifer Dilandy Attico Gladys from D. and A. C. Shakeshaft which sold for £3,100.
The same owner also took the reserve champion’s prize and top cow for Dilandy Brekem Susan 2 which sold for £2,650.
The other placings were: Heifers: 2, Treetop Luster Ghost from J. G. Morgan which sold for £2,500, 3, Meldamar Batman Elsa 50 which sold for £2,700. Cows: 2, Tretop Caster Charity from J. G. Morgan which sold for £2,650, 3 Commercial Holstein form B. & M. Elkin which sold for £1,880.
“The sale was graced by many good heifers and set off at a rapid pace from the word go with the first heifer in the ring achieving £2,380,” said Mr Dymond. “The champion was a stunner, deep and open ribbed with a fabulous mammary system.
“She was giving 39kg of milk, having calved six weeks ago and she met spirited bidding before selling for an impressive £3,100 to Mr C. Thomasson or Norville Holsteins, Whitchurch.”
Next in the trade was a heifer from W. A. Jones & Son of Whitchurch – Fennshall Sassafras Beatexus – a powerhouse giving 35kg and she effortlessly achieved £2,750, selling to a local flying herd. Another from the same home sold for £2,650.
Next was third placed Meldamar Batman Elsa 50 form vendors J. M. & D. Shephard and Sons of Bakewell. Second prize winner in the heifers, Treetop Luster Ghost, had been calved three months and had recently been served to sexed semen, a VG86 point heifer form J. G. Morgan of Tewksbury which achieved £2,500.
Buyers from Shrewsbury, Churchstoke, Tarporley, Meifod, Oswestry and Market Drayton all had an impact on the trade, with prices starting at £1,320.
The cows were topped at £2,650 twice for the top two wonderful in class from Andrew Shakeshaft and Geoff Morgan. Prices started at £1,120.
A run of dry cows peaked at £1,580 for a cow due with her third calve from B. & M. Elkin, who sold cows with great potential from the dispersal, including an eight-year-old, to £1,500.
In-calf heifers due to a Hereford sold to £1,580 for Cameron King of Marbury, with others to £1,450. Plainer in-calf heifers from £850. Bulling heifers to £850 on five occasions for Mrs G. Potter of Wood Farm and heifer calves from J. M. & D. Shephard of Meldamar sold to £250 four times.
Mr Dymond revealed that Tuesday, July 11 is reserved for a sale of 90 organic spring calved cows and 60 in-calf heifers at Shrewsbury Auction Centre.
