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HomeDairyVIDEO: €2,620 for Friesian cull cow at Gortatlea Mart
Catherina Cunnane
Catherina Cunnanehttps://www.thatsfarming.com/
Catherina Cunnane hails from a sixth-generation drystock and specialised pedigree suckler enterprise in Co. Mayo. She currently holds the positions of editor and general manager at That's Farming, having joined the firm during its start-up phase in 2015.
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VIDEO: €2,620 for Friesian cull cow at Gortatlea Mart

A Friesian cull cow that Gortatlea Mart posted on its Facebook page as part of a ‘guess the weight’ competition was a popular subject of discussion amongst several farmers over the last week.

The Kerry-based mart – which Maurice Brosnan owns and manages – held the competition to celebrate its eighth year in business under current management.

According to the statement from the mart, it will donate €1,000 to Kerry Hospice Foundation in conjunction with Dairygold Co-op Superstores.

The mart asked users to guess the weight of the cull cow, and the closest (nearest 5kgs) would receive €100.

The mart accepted entries up to midnight on Wednesday before the cow passed through the ring shortly after 3 pm yesterday (Thursday, January 27th).

The cow tipped the scales at 1,185kgs, just 10kgs more than Laura O’Sullivan’s judgement.

Asking “where will you see the likes of her again?” livestock auctioneer, McCarney, requested an opening of €2,500 for the February-2016-born lot. Following, lively bidding activity she shot to €2,620 (€2.26/kg) with the hammer falling to Dara Gleeson.

Other top prices on the day in the dry cow ring included €3,360 for a 2012-born Belgian Blue, weighing 865kgs (correct for breeding) and €2,850 for a 2013-born Belgian Blue weighing, 845kgs.

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Friesian cull cow 

Quad bullocks

Yesterday (Thursday), the mart also confirmed that the famous quad calves bred in Currow, Co. Kerry will return to Gortatlea Mart on Friday, January 28th, 2022.

The two-and-a-half year-old bullocks will be sold as part of this year’s anniversary sale.

The bullocks made the short journey from Kilflynn, where they have been since Norah Brady purchased them using LSL in October 2020.

Interview with Maurice Brosnan:

Last year, That’s Farming interviewed Brosnan, who took over the management and ownership of Gortatlea Mart in January 2014 from his late uncle, Sean, aged 76-years-old.

Maurice left school at seventeen years of age to work for the late Jack McAuliffe as a pig farm manager in 1986 for nine years, looking after a 100-cow dairy herd and a 250-sow unit.

In 1983, his uncle, Sean, established the mart and operated it until November 2014, when he sold it to Maurice, who also took up the managerial role.

“I tried to take Fridays off to work with my uncle Sean at Gortatlea Mart; Jack always encouraged me to buy my own cattle. He also had a big dairy herd the year my father died, and he purchased all the in-calf heifers my father had ready for sale,” Maurice Brosnan told That’s Farming.

Read this interview in full.

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