Two weeks ago I wrote about a farmer who lost 14 finished bullocks to TB. The upper limit for compensation is €3,000 per animal but these bullocks are worth more in the factory – up to €3,700 each. I learned this week after further blood testing another 12 have been condemned. The loss of income is now close to €20,000.

For a farmer finishing 100 bullocks per year, that’s a heavy price to pay on top of the stress and business disruption. Something must be done to bring real market valuations into play. Why have Department recorders in marts if we don’t use the real-time information? A bigger question is why have them in marts at all given the move to online selling and the transparency it brings?

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