Beef Bulls and Blue Tongue

May is always a significant month in the sales calendar at H&H. It’s traditionally bull sale month and we are lucky to host a wide range of breeds with some of the finest cattle from all over the UK travelling to Carlisle to come under the hammer.

This year, however, has not been without its challenges. The post-Brexit politics rumble on and the strong run of cattle we usually see from Northern Ireland has been cut back in the last few years. Now, the inability to pass animals to take home has been compounded by the Blue Tongue outbreak in Kent and surrounding counties. This has resulted in animals from the mainland UK, currently cannot cross the water to Ireland.

Of course, this had a significant impact on trading conditions for both vendors and purchasers from all UK countries and Ireland. The fact that cattle from the EU, where Blue Tongue clearly originated last summer, are allowed to be travelled through England and Scotland before boarding a boat to Ireland is further rubbing salt into wounds. Perhaps politics is more to blame for these restrictions than the disease prevention we are all lead to believe.

This upheaval has contributed to the trade across all breeds being slightly more reserved than we have seen of late with sale percentages taking a slight fall, which was always going to be the case.

 

Our Limousin sale, the first weekend of May met with a good demand, although the quality was perhaps not quite at the levels seen in recent years, this was especially evident with the younger bulls, which made trading more difficult as the sales progressed. A total of 80 bulls went under the hammer with a clearance rate of 73%, this wa ssame numerical total was sold as last year, but with more being presented for sale, something which often happens on the back of such a fabulous sales February proved to be. 

Topping the sale at 38000gns was September 2022-born Cowin Tequin from Welsh breeders Dyfan, Carol and Rheon Jame of the Cowin herd which sold to M/s Adam and M/s McNee from Perthshire.

Last weekend, the second weekend in May, we hosted 4 breeds in our Bull Sale at Borderway, Blondes, Simmentals, Charolais and British Blues. It was wonderful to see a packed market of both cattle and people, which certainly demonstrated to all, the power of the live auction system. The leading price of the day was claimed by the British Blues with M/s Morgan of the Almeley herd selling their Pre-sale Champion at 25,000gns to Coul Estates in the Scottish Highlands. Charolais peaked at 10,000gns with Simmentals to 7,200gns and Blondes to 6,200gns.

This weekend sees the turn of the traditional breeds where we welcome the Aberdeen Angus, Beef Shorthorns and Herefords. The shift back to these breeds last year has seen the Aberdeen Angus take top spot nationally as the most popular breed. An accolade held by the Limousins for many years, this is driven heavily by the dairy herd.  So, demand is expected to be good and we look forward to another successful day of trading for these societies.