The strong milking cow and heifer trade continued at the 159th Carnaross dairy sale in conjunction with Taaffe Auctions Ltd on Wednesday, March 19.

On the day, 164 fresh calved heifers and cows went through the ring which was met with a "very, very good dairy trade, no change there", according to auctioneer, Michael Taaffe.

Taafe mentioned that due to the high prices being received for underperforming cows in factories, "farmers have the ability to sell these cows that are not doing well in a herd to the factory and to reinvest that in fresh milk."

Based on the national average, P grade cows are being quoted at €6.10-6.30/kg and would be for well fleshed milking cows and less can be expected for cows straight out of the parlour.

At the sale, 137 milking cows went through the ring, selling for an average of €2,608 and "whether it was a high EBI cow or a high yielding cow, there was a demand for them and the trade was strong" according to Taaffe.

Click here to see the average cow prices for the week ending Sunday, March 9.

Sample prices of some fresh calved heifers that calved in February and early March are as follows:

The fresh calved heifers demanded a good price as all heifer's dams and grand dams showed positive production figures which was backed up with strong economic breeding indexes (EBI) and fine dairy traits.

The trade did not slow down for young cows going into their second, third and fourth lactation, as they drew strong attention from the ringside, showing the eagerness to drive on milk production.

Sample cow prices on the day are as follows:

Second calver, Cannonstown Eisaku Sandra 2 sold for the top price of €3,550 on the day with her dam Brookfield Crayon 3652 producing 9,371 kg of milk at 4.48% fat and 3.77% protein in one lactation.

Cannonstown Hurricane Sandra sold for €3,050 and was another cow to break the €3,000 barrier from the Sandra family as she produced 8,905kg of milk with 3.91% fat and 3.29% protein in her last lactation.

More sample cow prices are as follows:

According to Taaffe, the milk price "is really spurring farmers on to make that change" from poor performing cows to strong cows and heifers in milk.

Cows at the very end of the sale continued to make big money with sample prices of cows and heifers at the end of the sale as follows:

Taaffe mentioned that the strong trade in milking cattle can be put down to a few things, with factory prices and milk price being the two obvious ones.

However, he also said: "It's that time of year where you're more optimistic about getting cows out to grass and milk price is good so farmers are gearing up to make the very best out of it".