There was a tidy turnout of a little over 100 sheep at the breeding sheep show and sale in Iveragh Co-operative Mart, Cahersiveen, Co Kerry, on Wednesday last. Demand was best for hogget ewes with anywhere from €200 to €270 paid out for those. There was a larger supply of ewe lambs and these made from €3.50 to €3.70/kg, with a top price of €4.43/kg paid for a choice lot of Charolais-cross ewe lambs.

While south Kerry got a share of rain lately, the lack of precipitation in the midlands and east of the country has led to mart manager Mike Kissane taking the step to suspend live weighing of lambs in Cahersiveen for the moment. The practice usually takes place from late June to November but it’s been placed on hold until grass supplies recover on lamb buyers’ farms.

He said: “All our customers, who will buy lambs, they don’t have the feeding for them so we’ve suspended the live weighing until the weather changes, whenever that is going to be.

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"Farmers are finding it difficult to contend with that because they’d normally sell them the same week every year. But this year I think they’ll have wean their lambs and put them on a bit of grass and put their ewes away to the hill and I think that might be a better option.

We have the same customers on a yearly basis and they will buy the lambs and they want the lambs; they have told me that but they just can’t buy them at the minute.”