Market Prices

Latest auction market reports are continuing to indicate strong demand with limited supply. In Skipton on the 30/06/08, heifer prices reached £2,300/head and cow prices peaked at £1,810/head. The price of in-calf cows was up to £1,100/head. In an auction in Market Drayton on the 23/06/08, heifer prices topped £1,860/head, with a cow in its fourth lactation reaching £1,560/head.

Average Market Prices

These price averages are collated by AHDB Meat Services from a number of markets around the country, with the number of auctions used for the data varying from week to week. As with any average, unusually high or unusually low figures will skew the results especially when the sample size is small.

The latest market price averages show that in the week ending 25/06/08, the price of both freshly calved heifers and freshly calved cows increased, but the number of animals traded fell. Freshly calved heifer prices increased by 1.5% (£23.93/head) to an average of £1,607.34/head - However, the number traded over the period fell to 74, 17 less than the previous week. Freshly calved cow prices averaged £1,337.29/head in the week ending 25/06/08, £35.02/head (2.7%) more than the previous week. There were 107 freshly calved cows traded during the period, 31 (22.4%) less than the previous week.

Commercial Auction Market / Dispersal Averages

Dairy Cattle

Please note that these figures are changed retrospectively as reports from dispersal sales come in.

Source: Defra

Calf Prices

In the calf market, the average price of all bull calves increased compared to the previous week, with Hereford Cross bull calves showing the highest increase of 31.3% (£35.81/head) to an average of £150.12/head. Continental Cross bull calves averaged the highest price at £186.52/head, 3.9% (£7.14/head more than the previous week. Friesian/Holstein bull calves averaged £46.14/head, £3.68/head (8.7%) more than the average price in the previous week.

Unlike the bull calf market, the heifer market reported a fall in the average price of all heifer calves from the previous week. Continental Cross heifer calves showed the smallest week on week decrease, falling by £2.01/head (1.4%) to an average of £139.54/head. Hereford Cross heifer calves also fell by 5.8% (£5.34/head) to an average of £87.06/head. Friesian/Holstein heifer calves averaged £44.00/head in the week ending 25/06/08, £65.17/head (59.7%) less than the previous week - However, only six were sold which is likely to skew the average price.

Source: Defra
Note: The number of pedigree sales varies each month and this affects the average price.

Dispersal / Pedigree Sales

The figures below are average figures based on sales reports over the last month. These figures should only be used as a rough guide as to some of the prices available for animals which do not go through the auction markets and are traded through dispersal / pedigree sales.

* Provisional

Categories above are not always exclusively heifers or cows due to Holstein UK listings, therefore should just be used as a rough guide.
Source: Holstein UK