‘Unprecedented’ special sale under way at Orkney Auction Mart

A special sale, organised to help local farmers whose businesses may be suffering due to the wet weather,  kicked off at Orkney Auction mart this morning.

With 600 cattle up for sale, mart manager, Malcolm Scott, said today that they not had a cattle sale in June before and that both the sale, and the numbers seen are “unprecedented”.

He said that the sale attendance is representative of the effect wet weather has had on field conditions and how much silage farmers are expecting to have.

The sale was announced last Monday, with Mr Scott saying that it was organised to help farmers who may not have been able to get their cattle out to their fields yet and therefore anticipate their silage stocks being reduced.

He said the sale would “give local farmers the opportunity to sell off a few of their cattle at a time when silage stocks could be getting very tight.”