The supreme champion of the annual Kanturk Co-operative Mart fatstock show and sale was an April 2016-born Limousin heifer weighing 685kg. She sold for €2,600 (€3.80/kg) in front of a packed ringside.

Reserve champion went to a June 2016-born Charolais heifer weighing 655kg that made €2,100 (€3.21/kg).

Continentals in the show and sale made from €2.40/kg up to €3.80/kg, with most of the traditional breeds making from €2.00/kg to €2.50/kg.

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In the general sale, Friesian bullocks were making up to €1.70/kg. Herefords and Angus made from €1.75/kg to €1.90/kg, with conformation having a big say on prices. Up to €2.20/kg was available for good-quality continentals.

In the dry cow sale, fleshed cows were a good trade and make from €1.40/kg to €1.65/kg. Animals sold in the cow class in the show made from €600 to €1,330 with their weight. The class winner was a 900kg Limousin cow, which made €2,200 (€2.44/kg).

Manager Seamus O’Keeffe was delighted with how the sale went and indeed the year has gone for Kanturk Mart.

“We’ve been running fatstock sales over the last 15 years and the price and quality of the cattle and the attendance this year was possibly our best one. We had more sponsors than ever and we added two extra classes such was the demand.”

Strong year

Seamus added that the mart performed very strongly in 2017: “We’ve had a great year. Numbers are up 10%; we’re up 2,500 cattle more than what we sold in 2016 so far. For the first time ever, we’ve cracked the 30,000 animals sold in a year, with a few sales to go, so we are delighted. We’ve had a lot of dry cows and there was over 11,000 calves sold and that all helped.”

He put the success down to a hard working staff: “We’ve a great team here in the office and the yard; there’s great craic and you’d want to have a thick skin. But we’re all working towards the same thing, to make the mart better. The cattle business is tough and numbers is what it comes down to.”

In conjunction with the sale, €5,000 was raised for palliative cancer care in the area.

Commission rates are €8 to the seller and €10.50. Entry fee is €3 per head. These apply to bullocks, cows and heifers.