by MANUS LOUGHRAN
MARKETHILL Livestock Sales held a very successful opening night barbecue, which gave farmers and visitors an opportunity to look around their new impressive facilities on the Cladymilltown Road on Friday night.
Markethill Livestock and Farm Sales LTD have been running their sales in Markethill since 1954, but the mart has moved to the newly-built facilities just half a mile outside the town centre.
The new building will help modernise livestock sales in Markethill with fresh equipment, a top quality restaurant and each sale even being streamed live on to the internet.
Fane Valley Stores will also be opening a shop which will host a number of useful services and products at the new facilities.
The new building has brought a lot of excitement across the farming community, and it was never more evident than on Friday night with the opening of the new mart.
The preview event was organised to give people the chance to have a look around the new facilities before the sales begin later this week, with over 800 visitors turning up to take advantage.
Markethill livestock sales director Hampton Hewitt believes the event showed the excitement and interest surrounding the move and he is looking forward to the sales commencing this week.
“Over 800 people came to visit on Friday so things are definitely looking good for us now, but next week will truly tell the tale,” he told Armagh I.
“This was a move to modernise things; it’s a new building which is much better laid out than the previous mart, which has been in use for almost 60 years now.
“The move should also make things easier for farmers to get their stock. We’ve moved to a much more convenient location for parking so it should improve things.”
The first sales at the new mart will be culled cows, beef cattle and dairy stock, which begin at 11.30am on Tuesday, October 1.
