Coming from a sheep and suckler farming background in Shilleagh, county Wicklow, Eric developed a strong working relationship with the mart in his early teens. He maintained a strong link to the mart throughout early adulthood while also gaining experience of wider Agricultural matters through working roles held and also from active participation in Macra where he held the position of Macra Agricultural Affairs Committee Chairman.

He joined the management team of Tullow Livestock Sales in June 2010 as assistant manager to John Murphy. He explains that the experience gained benefitted him greatly as it allowed him to get up to speed with the day to day running of the mart and also become involved in the decision making process.

He says that he is lucky to be taking over a vibrant mart but explains that you cannot afford to stand still and have to move with an evolving sector. Continuing to improve mart throughput efficiency, utilising new communication channels of e-mail, text messaging and website development and adapting sales to cater for increased dairying in the south east are some of the challenges currently being worked on.

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