A Facebook group composed primarily of suckler farmers with approximately 6,000 members is set to host its first livestock sale at Carnew Mart on Wednesday, April 20.
Members of the ‘Irish Suckler Society’ Facebook group have organised the sale which will feature ‘suckler-bred cattle only’.
€1 of the entry fee from every animal sold in the sale will be donated to the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to support its work in Ukraine and, Carnew Mart has agreed to match this.
The Irish Suckler Society has appealed to all buyers and sellers of suckler-bred cattle to “support the sale” and in doing so, “help the victims of the war in the Ukraine”.
The sale will get underway at 5:00p.m and will see a range of suckler-bred cattle including pedigree bulls eligible for breeding, weanlings, stores, replacement heifers and cull cows, go through the mart ring.
Speaking ahead of the sale, Ger O’Brien, one of the founders of the Facebook group and a 70-cow suckler farmer from Callan, Co. Kilkenny, explained that the group has “almost 200 cattle” booked in to the sale already.
He added that the aim of the group is to “promote the quality of the suckler-bred cattle we have here in Ireland” .
He also said that the online group has further plans to host suckler-only sales at marts around the country in the future.
“It’s the first suckler-only sale and what were aiming to do is to try and get more marts to have these ‘quality cattle only’ sales,” he said.
“We have a great product and we hope to promote and grow the suckler brand out of this.”
Calves for Ukraine
In other news, Kildare and west Wicklow Irish Farmers’ Association (IFA) have teamed up with Leinster Marts (Kilcullen Mart) and local dairy farmers to organise a fundraising event for the Red Cross Ukraine fund.
The sale will take place at Kilcullen Mart, also on Wednesday, April 20, and will feature over 50 beef-sired calves which have been donated by dairy farmers in the region.
The Kildare IFA chairperson, Thomas O’Connor, appealed to farmers interested in supporting the fundraiser to consider either donating a calf or buying a calf at the sale.
Speaking to Agriland, the IFA chair said: “Local dairy farmers are donating calves to the sale and 100% of the money raised is going to the Red Cross Ukraine fund.”