CARNAROSS, just north of Kells, Co Meath, may be hundreds of miles from London and Brussels, but yesterday morning, at the sales in Gunne's livestock mart, the uncertainty of the beef trade found its way to the sales ring.
The mart there is slightly different from most other marts near the east coast because farmers, rather than factory agents or live shippers, do the trading.
At this time of year, farmers normally buy bullocks, which they fatten on summer grass to sell next October and November, thus investing in their future.
Trade, as expected, was slower driven into the ring after midday and Mr Jim Fox, the auctioneer, began calling for bids. There was no question, however, of the collapse in the market which many people had been predicting.
The first lots made prices similar to last week between £95 and £110 per 100 kg. However, by the end of the day Mr Fox was admitting that there had been an overall drop in prices. "Farmers still wanted to buy bullocks between 400 and 500 kg if they were entitled to premiums. But, overall, they were not buying the heavier bullocks, which fell in price by about £20 per animal," he said.
I expected a greater drop and was quite pleased overall, but there was an awful lot of caution there and a lack of commitment. You cannot blame farmers for that.
Mr Michael Ludlow, a local farmer monitoring progress in the ring, was quite pleased with what he was seeing. "I thought there would be less confidence, but a lot of men are buying and prices are not that bad. I suppose they have to be a bit cautious. It's difficult to know what is happening."
Farmers gathered at the cattle pens vented their anger at the media for "blowing the whole thing out of proportion". One said. "You crowd are destroying the whole trade. You don't give a damn about farmers and there is no link proved yet between `mad cow' and CJD."
There was no such lack of confidence at Maynooth mart, where prices for the 600 animals on offer were up on last week. "We had the factory buyers in here today and the price of heavy bullocks remained steady," said the auctioneer, Mr Sean Doyle. "The danger is that, with all the talk going on, we will talk the market down, and there is no need for that. I saw a lot of confidence today and for good quality beef animals, prices were actually up on last week."
But the success story of the day for Mr Doyle was in the sheep pens, where prices for spring lamb soared and there was a brisk trade for hoggets, lambs of about a year old. Animals of 45 kg were making £70 and 38kg ones £60 to £62. Hoggets were making up to £82 for 50 kg animals.
"There are good times coming for the men in sheep, not just because of the BSE scare, but because there is a strong demand for spring lamb," said Mr Doyle.
In both marts, farmers felt that there would be opportunities for them because of the British crisis.