Bandon mart manager Tom McCarthy had high praise for the encouraging spirit of weanling exporters and farmer buyers who he said were, “showing tremendous confidence in these times, when it is so badly needed.”

On Tuesday last if you happened to be at Kanturk mart, you would have found a mart yard packed with jeeps, trailers and trucks, and mart pens full of quality weanling stock.

While there was some good news during the week, with Turkey opening its arms to the live export of Irish cattle, in this house I was dealing with a live export of a different variety.