Carnaross Mart held its weekly calf sale on Monday, January 17, with Padraig McIlroy, the mart's manager describing the trade as 'on fire'.

The tail end of 2021 and the beginning of 2022 have seen a great trade for animals sold through marts, with all types of cattle making good prices.

The calf trade has been especially hot in recent weeks, for good quality calves of all breeds.

With the spring-calving season kicking off it will be interesting to see if these prices continue to hold in the weeks ahead.

Speaking after the sale, Padraig told Agriland that: "Monday's sale saw 230 calves presented at the mart for sale.

"This was an increase on the previous week, with numbers steadily increasing each week.

"Friesian bull calves made up to €225 for the stronger type calves. The export-type calves were making up to €100, with no Friesian bull calf selling for less than €75."

Commenting further, Padraig said: "The sale was on fire, with no beef-sired calves selling for less than €300."

Some sample prices for calves ranging from four to six weeks old:

The spring-calving season is getting underway on dairy farms. 2022 has seen the introduction of new regulations around animal identification and the tagging of calves.

As part of the move towards mandatory electronic identification (EID), all new cattle tag sets, sourced from approved tag suppliers, now contain a white EID tag.