Work on €16m livestock sales centre in Fermoy under way

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

It will feature three fully-seated sales rings, 145 cattle pens, six intake chutes, 16 covered loading bays and a sheep yard with 70 pens.

It will replace marts in Midleton and Mitchelstown, which are ready closed, and another in Fermoy.

A full waste disposal treatment plant connected with the Fermoy town system will be a feature of the complex, which will have a wheel washing-disenfecting bay at the entrance and exit.

There will be overhead catwalks. All pens will have drinking bowls. Roof water will be stored for wash down, and a sprinkler-disenfectant system will be used.

The centre will have solar panels for water heating, a biomass burner for heating, broadband and fibre optic services and provision for electronic tag reading.

Cork Marts chief executive Sean O’Sullivan said the centre will service a much wider catchment area and will provide facilities to the highest standard.

“It will achieve greater scale in a business that depends on throughput for success and will project a modern quality image for an industry under ever increasing standards from farmers, statutory bodies and consumers.

“It will also be attractive to buyers in terms of the livestock numbers available, facilities and access.

“It is the largest single investment in any project that we will have made in the history of Cork Marts.

“It is showing that we are there for the long term,” he said.

Mr O’Sullivan said there will always be a need for the open market auction system for selling livestock.

“We want to be in a position to provide the best possible service in the best possible facilities,” he said.

Cork Marts had a turnover of €80m from livestock sales last year.