Thank God summer has finally arrived. I thought for a while that it would never get here. But it has.

Cork Marts has been convicted and fined for using unauthorised animal remedies on cattle after it was supplied with drugs as part of a deal with a Spanish company.

The stand-off between farming organisations and the beef industry in recent weeks has been an interesting spectacle. Behind the headlines there are a number of uncomfortable truths and it will require much more than pickets to change them.

Steady viewing and welcoming vendors have been the order of the day for the substantial, 176-acre Applebe farm at Dawstown, Blarney, which is probably best known as a one-time point-to-point racing location.

It’s like a second town has been built behind the original streetscape of Macroom in mid-Cork, where the former 4Home store has come up for sale and is likely to be bought for convenience retailing.

County councillors are demanding trucks carrying earth for flood-prevention embankments be diverted from a picturesque village which has won awards for its tidiness and floral displays at regional, national, and European level.

A detective garda who had a truck driven at him was stabbed a number of times in the hand as he tried to take the keys off the driver.

A garda has been stabbed in the hand during a stand-off with a man at Cork Marts near Fermoy last night.

MIDWAY through every 12-week certificate course at the Ballymaloe Cookery School, we all pile onto a bus and go on a foodie tour.

Cork IFA members are celebrating the 25th anniversary of the county’s decision to create the divisions of west, north, and central.

An untiring commitment to voluntary community work for more than a quarter of a century was recognised with the awarding of the Paddy Fitzgerald Memorial Award to a County Limerick woman.

The voluntary efforts of people in rural communities are to be celebrated at the 2012 Paddy Fitzgerald Memorial Awards in Dunraven Arms Hotel, Adare, Co Limerick, on Oct 14, with a €2,000 top prize.

The mart trade over the last ten days has been dominated by men who need to buy cattle to graze grass.

IRELAND will find it hard to produce enough high quality beef to meet growing overseas demand in the coming years, predicts Bord Bia chief executive Aidan Cotter.

MILK quotas are gone, and there’s nothing to be gained from living in the past, according to Irish Co-operative Organisation Society (ICOS) president Pat McLoughlin.

A RARE National Dairy Show, two-in-a-row win kept the Barrett clan of Togher and Adamstown, Cork, at the top of Irish dairy showing last weekend.

DAIRY farmers from all over Europe will be in Cork next week for the European Dairy Farmers (EDF) Congress.

A NEW €17 million state-of-the-art livestock mart and conference centre, developed by Cork Co-op Marts in Corrin Business Park, Fermoy, was officially opened yesterday.

ONE of the leading figures in the Irish meat industry, Dan Browne, has been honoured by the Agricultural Science Association.

CCM Dovea Genetics has been formed by Cork Marts and Dovea Genetics to sell bovine semen directly to dairy and beef farmers.

TURNOVER in the Cork Marts Group increased last year but group profits fell slightly due to higher interest charges.

A NEW era in livestock sales began yesterday when a €17 million mart opened for business in Co Cork.

Marts: There was almost 1,000 cattle for the opening sale at the new Cork Marts sale centre at Rathcormac (Fermoy) yesterday. The new mart has replaced the 50-year-old mart in Fermoy town.

A multi-million euro retail development featuring a five-screen cinema is planned for Fermoy, Co Cork.

THE largest single property development ever planned for a north Cork town was outlined yesterday.

WORK has started on constructing the most modern livestock sales centre in the country at Corrin, Fermoy.

A €22.5 million land deal is the sale of the half-century for a Munster livestock mart.

Share trading has been busy at Cork Marts, according to the co-op’s annual report.

THE recovery, into public hands, of a strategic town centre site in Skibbereen will benefit the entire community, Mayor Adrian Healy pledged yesterday.

A DEVELOPMENT tide has turned in Midleton’s favour in East Cork and now, possibly the best waterside site in the area is set for building on as a €20 million scheme goes on site.