There is increasing concern about the trade impact that the current ban on exports to Northern Ireland could have.

Northern Ireland is an important market for live cattle, especially for marts in the border and northwest regions, where a lot of store cattle and breeding cattle are purchased by NI customers.

Almost 22,000 cattle under two years of age moved north last year, of which 6,672 were calves under six months of age.

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While the absence of Northern Ireland customers hasn’t taken its toll on the trade over the last two weeks, it is expected to be felt more as the year progresses.

On this week’s pedigree pages, Nevan McKiernan shows that anything as high as 30% of pedigree bulls at breed society sales are exported to the UK.

Some of these bulls were also some of the highest priced bulls in sales, with ROI genetics building up a strong reputation both north of the border and across the water in recent years.

Brexit is to blame, with NI now treated as a third country in relation to animal health certs.

Both the Department of Agriculture, Food and Marine in ROI and the Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs in Northern Ireland knew that this was on the cards, and a solution needs to be found quickly to avoid trade disruption.

A possible date of 1 July has been mentioned by some for a resumption of trade, but this will be too late for the 2026 breeding trade and calf trade.