Trade has remained similar throughout the autumn period, although some sales have been selective. With milk prices on the slow rise we are starting to already see farmers looking to increase numbers and produce more milk. We are continuing to see strong demand for freshly-calved high-yielding heifers and cows and it is becoming increasingly more evident that there is little interest in low yielding and poor condition cows and heifers, also stale milking and off lying sorts are generally harder to place. Lately we have seen the very best back up between l,700-2,000 with the better quality on the whole between 1,400-1,600. Those poorer sorts continue to trade around 800-1,000. We have had a couple of dispersals which have been a strong trade throughout, as you always tend to see different buyers come out of the woodwork who will only buy from dispersals. I think this trade will encourage more dispersals on to the market, as while milk prices are on the increase, there is a lot of catching up to do and the general feeling when speaking to farmers is that it is still very tough financially. We are also in the time of year when many herd TB tests are happening and we have had a couple of sales booked in recently which have been considering selling for a while, and that clear TB test has spurred them on to doing so. We are seeing more dispersals, large consignments of cows and reduction sales coming forward now, and I think this will test the trade, especially for the second-quality and stale-milkers, but I think demand for fresh milk will remain strong. Youngstock have probably been the hardest trade throughout the year in general, which is no great surprise with most farmers not having surplus money to tie up in youngstock. That said, anyone that has been able to buy youngstock have bought well, with bulling heifers being 200-300 apiece less than the previous year and I think they will certainly look well bought when they calve in the next year!
展开▼
