Great excitement at sale of 70-acre grassland farm

There was great excitement at the sale of some prime farmland at Carrignavar, Co Cork, recently when two young farmers went head to head for the 70-acre grassland farm at Ballybrack, just outside Cork city and in a very intensive dairying area.

The land opened at €700,000 in front of a full house and the actual acreage was clarified at 70 acres before matters proceeded, and they got off to a flying start.

Bids went up immediately in €20,000s, until the farm reached €1,050,000 at which stage it went on the market, says Michael Barry of Dick Barry and Sons Auctioneers, Fermoy: “We went on the market at that stage and two more bids of €1.16m and €1.17m put the land at over €15,000 an acre — and the purchaser was an adjoining farmer — on the boundary ditch.