Trade Talk - Glyn Lucas, Dairy Sales Manager & Auctioneer, Borderway Mart, Harrison & Hetherington
6th January 2023
2022 was a momentous year for our whole team with almost 15000 dairy cattle sold to average almost £1800 per life.
Throughout 2022 the average values in our monthly Pedigree Dairy Day Sales have remained around £2500 for recently calved milking animals, with three sales getting closer to £3000 of an average. Demand for this high standard of animal continues to be under supplied and as long as margins remain at current levels, values will continue to remain strong.
One of the trends in the dairy industry has been the declining demand for Holstein bulls as most producers now use female sexed semen and a beef sire. We continue to offer Holstein and British Friesian bulls in an April Spring Sale and September Autumn sale. Although numbers have reduced, values have been encouraging with both sales averaging over £3000 with four bulls topping at 6,000gns.
We start each month with the Borderway Monthly Dairy Day sale that now attracts around 400 animals per month comprising freshly calved animals, mid lactation or dry cows, in calf heifers and youngstock. Some of the highlights in this monthly sale series was the top price milking heifer selling for £3500 in the December sale.
We introduced a new British Friesian Sale in 2022 that took place in July and featured 150 head from several leading breeders. Trade topped at 4,400gns and this sale takes place again in July 2023.
The 36th edition of the Black & White sale held on the first Saturday in December attracted a huge crowd of buyers from across the UK, Ireland & EU with buyers recorded from six countries and twenty-three UK counties. Trade topped at 14,000gns with 27 animals selling for or above £5000 with the overall average coming to £4224 per life.
As we look forward to 2023 it’s super exciting to see some major sales already booked in that will not only be important events but will also be historic.