Try as it might, heavy rain didn’t dampen prices in Cahersiveen for Iveragh Co-op Mart's spring-born weanling show and sale.

As ever in the south Kerry venue, Charolais and Limousin dominated the numbers in the lairage and there was no shortage of bidders both ringside and online.

Given the nature of the ground in the area, spring-born systems wouldn’t be as plentiful compared with autumn calving and unlike most marts, this would be a quieter time of year in terms of weanling sales.

There were 240 cattle on offer - a reflection of the gradual decline of suckler numbers in the area over the last few years, resulting in numbers for sale back about 100 head compared with last year.

'Exceptional quality'

A 97% clearance rate spoke volumes about the trade and, afterwards, mart manager Mike Kissane said: "There was exceptional quality and heifers probably did better than bulls, the best of them made from €3.60/kg to €3.80/kg.

"All were going for further feeding and it was similar with the bulls. There was only 20 went for export. Bulls for the most part made from €3.30/kg back to €2.80/kg.

"I suppose something that stood out today was that calves that were weaned and on feed had a distinctive price advantage over those that weren’t.

"The weaned calf had a huge advantage for the buyer and online buyers especially, they want to know if an animal's weaned.”