The dairy trade is still looking quite strong in marts this week with spring calving well and truly underway.

Plenty of marts across the country have seen freshly calved heifers, cull cows, in-calf heifers, and fresh calves go under the hammer this week.

There is still a clear demand for good quality stock with some great prices, but it is hard to ignore a sense of nervousness in some rings as poor milk prices and issues such as bluetongue linger.

Two-year-old heifers are making up to €2,400, old cull cows are still fetching over €1,200, and calf sales seem to be starting out strong, with Friesian bull calves making up to €530/head.

Dungarvan Mart

Dungarvan Mart in Co. Waterford held a strong calf sale during the week.

Friesian bull calves at two months-of-age stole the show. Weighing in at 67kg, they sold for a staggering €530/head.

Farmers will remember being delighted making €200/head for the same size calves last year, and the same farmers do not have to go back too many years to a time when they were struggling to even offload Friesian bulls.

Meanwhile, the mart also saw 17 days-of-age male Friesian cross calves at 50kg go under the hammer for €360/head.

Four Friesian cross bulls weighing 47kg at 20 days-of-age were picked up for €310/head, while two Friesian bulls at 57kg went for €310/head.

The lowest price was a single Friesian cross bull who weighed just 20kg at 16 days-of-age, selling for €120.

Aberdeen Anguses out of dairy stock were selling in or around the €400 mark when weighing in at 40-50kg, while heavier calves weighing up to 60kg were selling for €550.

Listowel Mart

Listowel Mart also saw a fine selection of calves head through its ring during the week.

Friesian bulls weighing just over the 40kg mark were being picked up for anywhere between €190-€195/head.

Aberdeen Angus were making north of €400/head for stock weighing in over 50kg.

One of the stars of the show was a month-old Angus at 70kg who went for €540.

Listowel Mart also had a range of two-year-old dairy heifers up for grabs.

The highlight was a freshly calved heifer going under the hammer at €2,540.

The rest of the heifers ranged between €1,400 and €2,400, while an eight-year-old cow sold for €1,240.

Waterford Ross Mart

Waterford Ross Mart in New Ross, Co. Wexford finished out the week with a production sale consisting of 40 freshly calved pedigree registered Holstein Friesian heifers.

The best price of the day went for a three-year-old cow which the auctioneer described as "the best heifer in the herd, super smashing heifer".

The heifer, who calved down on the second day of January and has a projected yield of 9,132kg, sold for €3,125.

The average sale price on the day was €2,370, with only six of the heifers selling below €2,000.