The presence of four shippers at the ringside in Iveragh Co-operative Mart, Cahersiveen on Tuesday last made for a buoyant weanling trade but manager Mike Kissane warned that the confidence is going out of the domestic beef trade.

“It was a good trade but if there weren’t exporters it would have been tough enough, they bought 60% of the weanling bulls. If we were depending on the domestic trade we’d be in trouble because with the way factories are currently pulling prices, there’s no confidence for people to buy stores or feed cattle.”

Demand for weanling bulls from 300kg to 400kg was excellent in the south Kerry mart but when they went above that weight, trade was sticky, he added.

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“There were cases when a shapey 340kg calf was freely making €6/kg but ones weighing 450kg struggled to make from €4.50/kg to €5/kg.

“We had a bigger than usual sale for this time of year and it could impact numbers for the July sale but with more yards are skinned for fodder and farmers realising it’s not paying them to feed on given the current trends they opted to sell now.”