Tight supply stokes calf values £10-£30 a head
© Michael Priestley A seasonal drop in baby calf supply has lifted the value of heifers and second-choice animals at many sale rings. Buyers have seen prices strengthen this winter and kick on again in the new year, with many bidding keenly for limited numbers before spring calving starts.
Market reports suggest the second-choice heifers and smaller calves look the dearest, with bidders turning to lesser dairy-bred and smaller types to fill trailers and wagons.
Despite high straw and feed costs, AHDB market averages showed continental-cross heifer calves under three weeks old hit a 15-week high of £166.97 a head in mid-January.
See also: Tighter numbers push U-grade cattle close to 400p/kg
North West
Calf trade has been very firm this winter and has lifted slightly in the past month, according to Cheshire-based livestock agent Ashley Latham of Livestock Supplies.
Mr Latham said the seasonal tightening of supply between autumn calvers finishing and spring calvers starting had added about £10-£30 a head to three-to-five-week-old calves.
Meanwhile, strong national demand for beef and firmer finished cattle values were keeping confidence strong in the calf-rearing sector. He said there was a fine balance between supply and demand.
“Some strong four- or five-week-old Limousin-cross bull calves are making about £350 and the best are getting up towards £400,” he told Farmers Weekly. “Heifers the same age that will make suckler cow replacements are £250-£300, while poorer-conformation heifer calves to be reared for beef are worth slightly less.”
He added that with some suckler herds starting to calve, demand had been stepped up by farmers wanting to replace calves after their cows had lost their own, or to double-suckle calves on to their cows.
Frome
Calf trade is very dear across the board at Frome, but perhaps more so for the lower-end animals, according to Charlie Coleman and Tim Hector of Frome Livestock Auctioneers.
Winter calf trade has regularly been up £50-£60 a head on the autumn, with trade lifting a further £10 or so in the new year.
Mr Coleman said it would be interesting to see what happened to trade when more calves came forward in late February and early March, at the start of spring block-calving.
“We sell more than 400 baby calves a week in the spring, whereas now we are seeing about 120-150 a week,” he said. “We have seen fewer Hereford-sired calves and, as a result, these are making a premium again.”
Even small and plain native-sired bulls had made £220-£230 a head in recent weeks, he added.