Some fast food restaurants have introduced a trade embargo on beef sold through livestock markets on the grounds that welfare standards associated with live auction markets are worse than standards associated with direct sale to abattoirs. The current study examined the handling difficulties and welfare standards at 24 UK cattle and calf markets, and comparisons were made according to class of animal (mainly store or finished) and according to throughput of the market, <100 livestock units (LSU) per week, 100–300 LSU per week and >300 LSU per week. Handling problems examined included refusal to move, balking, slips, falls, impacts, inappropriate handling such as excessive use of a stick, hazardous jumping and confusion while loading onto vehicles. The most common difficulties were impacts, slips and falls during grading and when putting cattle up to the sale ring. Slipping was also common in finished cattle while they were in the ring, and they were prone to impacts when returning to a holding pen. Refusing to load onto vehicles after the sale was common in both finished and store cattle. Calves were prone to going down on their knees when moving onto the tailboards of vehicles. Of the markets, 0·47 had potential bruising or impact points in the grading facilities and 0·67 of the markets did not have a way of ensuring that legs did not get trapped between gates and gateposts if cattle attempted to jump out of a holding pen. In most other respects the prevalence of weaknesses in the facilities and problems during handling was low.