What started with her dad taking her out of school on Mondays to go to the mart gradually turned into Aoife becoming more involved as she got older.

One day when she was dropping off ram lambs to Macroom Mart, they were short-staffed, so she helped out.

Two years later, the Kerry native is now working five days a week, primarily as a drover (livestock handler), but also working in the office and clerking at Corrin, Macroom and Skibbereen, making her a true all-rounder across Cork Marts.

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“My favorite part of the whole thing is a Wednesday sheep sale, because that's what I'd like to be seeing. Seeing prices and market trade and everything that would be my favorite part of it in fairness,” said Aoife.

Overall this year, trade has been consistently busy, according to Aoife, and big days in Skibbereen Mart could have seen 1,200 calves.

“With the spring time, the calf numbers never stopped coming out. They were still there in June,” she said.

Lanarks

With Lanark ewes at home, Aoife also has about 150 Aberfield ewes.

“We have been slow about selling lambs; we are taking out the best of what we have every week, picking off the heaviest of them and that’s doing well for us.

"You wouldn’t want to be selling a big bundle of stores, kind of half light-ish ones at the moment, as trade has stopped with the drought. There is only a month left for grass growth, so the store buyers are going to fill up fairly quickly,” said Aoife.

As for the future, Aoife hopes to stay in Cork Marts as "it’s a good job".

“If I was kept here, I would stay here. I enjoy it, I’d be obsessed with it here. My father is a young man yet, so it will be another 20 years until I have the reins at home. I would be happy to stay here if I was given the opportunity.”

Watch the video with Aoife here: