Cattle prices might be flying it and marts could be heading for a bumper year in terms of turnover and operating profits, but there is a lot of nervousness in the trade.

The causes of this unease are boiling on a number of fronts.

Credit levels are obviously an immediate and a very serious concern. The difficulties being experienced by Portumna Mart illustrate how matters can go seriously off the rails in a very short space of time.

Indeed, while mart credit has traditionally financed much of the livestock sector’s wheeling and dealing, record cattle prices mean the stakes of that particular game are now exponentially higher than in the past.

The recent meeting between mart officials and senior staff at the Property Services Regulatory Authority (PSRA) was a further reminder for the sector – if one were needed – that keeping a tight grip on credit is not just good business practice but a legal requirement.

How this requirement will be enforced and policed in practice, however, is the six-million-dollar question. Off the record, many marts would be happy if there was a blanket ban on credit.

Some admit to being as nervous as kittens on the issue, particularly since the jump in cattle prices took hold over the last nine months.

“The scale of the money involved is frightening,” one mart manager said. It would make the whole job a lot simpler if we were banned from providing credit.”

Away from the dreaded ‘C’ word, there are other challenges on the horizon. Falling cattle and sheep numbers are obviously a worry. Ironically, the marts have benefitted from more export commission fees. However, the surge in exports through the winter and spring will eventually come back to bite.

There is an acceptance that significantly fewer stores will go through sales this autumn.

That is hardly surprising giving that cattle numbers are contracting, while exports are up a massive 20% and are now north of 200,000 head for the year to date.

In fact, exports last week alone clocked in at an impressive 15,000 head.

The final and, arguably, most pressing threat for the marts are the TB measures being considered by the Department of Agriculture. The marts are particularly worried about proposals to seriously restrict the trade in cull cows; which has become a major money spinner for the marts over the last few years.

Such a restriction – various iterations of which have been touted in dispatches over the last few months – would also be extremely unpopular with farmers.

The last year has been great for the marts. Let’s hope they continue; because they were also good for farmers.