Auctioneers: Wright Marshall

Averages: 60 cows £1210.56; 140 milking heifers £1424.46; 45 in-calf and served heifers £1035; 14 maiden heifers £402.31; 5 heifer calves £170.00 

The Famous Wright Marshall Mid Month Dairy Cattle Sale including sections for the Western Holstein Club’s Focus Milk pedigree cows and heifers attracted an entry of 270 head of which 262 were forward on the day. 

Well what a trade for the 200 milkers forward and certainly the best prices achieved in the last 12 months with the pedigree heifers averaging an incredible £1,492 each. The rise on the month alone was amazing with some animals making as much as £500 more than they would have done last sale with an overall average for the milkers rising by some £250 on the month and a general opinion being spoken was the worse they were, the dearer they were. So why was this? Obviously there seems to be more than a glimmer of hope that the dreadful milk prices producers receive for their milk have bottomed out, a huge amount of cows have been culled and cows seem to be in short supply plus the fear that many producers will be penalised by their processors if they fail to meet their production profile. 

The largest crowd of potential purchasers seen around the ring for almost a year, gathered in big numbers for the sale with many going home without even having a bid and many other big buyers going home with nowhere near enough to fulfil their requirements. Lots of people were present from West Wales to Wiltshire and Lancashire to Cumbria with a huge amount of competitive and very healthy bidding. 

Top price of the day was £2,100 for a superb heifer from the Leesemanor herd of Wilf, Pam and James Lomas for their Leesemanor Palermo Dawn (VG87-2yr) out of an EX91-3E dam by Lee who calved in April and was sold giving 32 kg daily. She sold to Bradley Farms Ltd., of Preesall, Blackpool who also purchased Leesemanor Artes Chancery 3 (VG86-2yr) from the same home at £1,950. 

Gavin Struthers makes the long journey each sale from Windygates, Fife with a load of heifers and is really building himself a great reputation for the quality of his stock. He had two heifers sell at £2,050 each; one was a Lauthority sold giving 36 kg to C J Philipps & Co of Minsterley, Shropshire and another by Cookiecutter Hefty sold giving 40 kg to a local producer. Gavin also sold a B-Crest Shadow heifer for £1,980 to Wilmot Blockley of Tarvin, Chester. David Monk of Ormskirk was also amongst the leading prices selling a Jeeves daughter at £2,020 to J D R & M J Warburton of Whitley, Warrington and a Woodmarsh Asterix heifer at £1,900 to Brian Parker of Haughton, Stafford. Leading the very good consignment from Andrew Shakeshaft of Ellesmere this month was a granddaughter of Fustead Goldwyn Guthrie that sold to Adrian Jones, Garthmyl, Welshpool. 

There was a good entry of cows and they were a flying trade from start to finish. All the leading prices in this section of the catalogue were purchased by Bradley Farms Ltd of Preesall, Blackpool and included three from the Lomas family’s Leesemanor and Daneview Herds at £1,850, £1,800 and and £,1650 for second calvers by Palermo, Graceland and Jayz; also a Comestar Ladner second calver from G H Ravenscroft & Co., of Malpas Another cow at £1,600 was a second calf Lavanguard from Ian Bradburn of Orrell, Wigan which sold to B & M Elkin & Sons Ltd of Stone. 

There was a good entry of 45 in-calf heifers with some good quality individuals forward. Trade was again more expensive but has not risen as much as the milkers. Top was £1260 for a Seaver heifer incalf to an Angus from AG Hedges Farms of Didcot, Oxfordshire with other £1220 for a daughter DJ DieHard Owen from Richard Basey-Fisher & Son of Norfolk and the same figure for a Shottle daughter from M E S Dart & Partners of Wallingford, Oxford. 

There was only one small consignment of maiden heifers from W Ridge & Partners of Rotherham which sold up to £520 for an October 2015 daughter of Mincio. 

Again just small entry of heifer calves which were well bought to a top price of £200