Almost 300 head of breeding commercial cattle were on offer in Randalstown, Co. Antrim on Saturday, June 8, for the Jalex Select sale.
The sale was described by the organisers as “the biggest on-farm sale ever staged by James Alexander and the team at Jalex Livestock”.
The sale took place in conjunction with Harrison and Hetherington with online bidding available through MartEye.
James Little was on the rostrum taking the bids for 60 first-calving heifers, 140 in-calf heifers and a select offering of service-age bulls and show-potential maiden heifers.
The calves on offer were described by the organisers as “all naturally born” and sired by “top performing Limousin bulls such as The Grove Farm P381 and Corcamore Romeo, both of which carry two copies of the F94L gene”.
There were some impressive statististics from the sale including:
- Eight lots sold over £8,000;
- 12 lots sold over £7,000;
- 24 lots sold over £6,000;
- 44 lots sold over £5,000.
Taking the top price on the day was lot 110, a black Limousin 2021-born heifer scanned carrying a heifer calf sired by The Grove Farm- P381 with a due date this September.
The heifer weighed almost 890kg and was an embryo transfer (ET) calf bred by Okanes of Carnlough.
Her sire was Ampertaine Foreman and her dam was sired by Imperial. This lot sold for the top price on the day of £18,000.
The second-top price of the sale went to Lot 95, a March 2022-born maiden heifer weighing just under 750kg.
This heifer was bred by Harrisons at Grange Hall Farm. Her sire was Nobel madness (Fieldsons Alfie) and her dam was sired by a hybrid Belgian Blue X Limousin bull.
This maiden heifer changed hands in the sale for £14,000.
Lot 111, a 2021-born in-calf heifer sold for £10,000. This heifer weighed just under 820kg and was sired by Imperial De L’Ecluse.
The heifer is scanned carrying a heifer calf sired by Corcamore Romeo with a due date in October this year.
The sale also saw strong demand for cows with calves at foot and it was lot 10, that took the top price of the cow-calf pairings in the sale.
The Blonde D’Aquitaine X Belgian Blue heifer with a March-born heifer calf at foot sired by Corcamore Romeo sold for £11,000.
Lot 44 took the second-top price in the cow-calf section. This Belgian Blue heifer with a February-born bull calf at foot sired by Corcamore Romeo weighed 640kg and sold for £9,200.
The sale also featured a selection of bulls which sold to impressive prices and the top-priced bull in the sale was Lot 90, a Foreman x Tidy Dancer hybrid bull selling for £14,000.
This March-2023-born bulls’ dam was described as “full of the best of breeding” sired by Wilodge LJ, out of a Powerhouse Elite ex-show heifer that goes back to a Ronick Hawk-sired hybrid heifer from a Pedigree Belgian Blue cow.
At the Jalex Select sale, 78 of the heifers with calves at foot sold to an average price of £4,561 while the 135 in-calf heifers in the sale sold to an average sale price of £3,755 and the four cross-bred bulls sold to an average of £6,700.