What a Trade @ SAC August Collective

Trade at Sedgemoor Auction Centre’s August Collective Dairy Sale met a firm demand throughout, with buyers keen to secure quality replacements across all sections. A catalogue entry of 150 dairy cattle was complemented by additional entries, resulting in a varied offering of freshly calved cows and heifers, in-calf heifers, yearling heifers and heifer calves.  

The fresh calved cows sold to £3,832.50 for the second lactation Beaconhill Hanans Foxy 2nd consigned by MKJ Reed & Son (Devon), purchased by a volume buyer from Wales. Another Beaconhill bred cow sold for £3,780, whilst the best from the Blackhole herd sold to £3,675 for the R2 D2 Agnes calved to her second in July.

Quality freshly calved heifers again proved the highlight of the sale producing the day’s top call of £3,885 which was achieved twice by Clenchers Pauly Bounty 4th and Peacehay Has It All Whitetime 3rd numerous other heifers on the day sold between £3,500 and £3,800 to include heifers from Beneknowle, Blackhole, Dorset and Moorshard.

The in-calf heifer section attracted buyers from across the country and topped at £3,150 on several occasions, led by entries from the highly regarded Keevil herd of A & JE Fewings. Other consignments selling for over £3,000 from Blackhole, Charleston x 2 (Sussex) and the commercial heifers from Philip W Pile (Sussex).  Strong demand for autumn and winter calving replacements ensured the majority of the section traded from the mid £2,000s upwards with dispersal entries from Philip W Pile and JB, M, MA & MJ Williams (Hereford) keenly contested by commercial buyers taking advantage of the opportunity to secure genuine herd replacement cattle.

An electric trade for the entry of Holstein and Crossbred yearling and younger heifers from Skinner & Son (Kent) produced a top of £1,764, with the stronger Holstein-bred heifers attracting the strongest demand, Swedish Red x at £1680, Danish Red x £1575 and Montbéliard x £1522.50. The 37 heifers forward averaged an impressive £1,521.

Pedigree heifer calves met a particularly buoyant trade. The standout calf was the Clenchers-bred Benito Bounty who was 8 weeks old and followed her dam through the ring to sell for £997.50, whilst further calves from the Peacehay and Tombridge consignments regularly exceeded £750.

The trade reflects the shortage of quality dairy replacements currently available. Freshly calved cattle sold especially well, whilst in-calf and yearling heifers met a consistent demand from both local and travelling purchasers. Vendors were well rewarded for presenting cattle with strong production records and proven cow families producing the following excellent averages on the day.