It's been 10 days of turmoil for marts since a complete lockdown was issued on all sales on 24 March. New arrangements are slowly being put in place around the country to facilitate trade, but there are mixed feelings on how the measures will work, and indeed whether they are practical. A number of marts have taken the decision to remain closed until next week and are awaiting further announcements on any lift or extension of the current restrictions.

Services

One west of Ireland mart manager told the Irish Farmers Journal this week that he believes marts need to be very careful around the perception that is being given to the general public surrounding trading cattle through the mart at present.

Many marts have chosen to operate a match making service whereby the mart matches up buyers and sellers and there is minimum contact through the mart except where weighing needs to take place. District veterinary offices have also been issuing different criteria depending on what county the mart is located in.

Carrigallen sale

In Carrigallen on Monday, sellers dropped off calves at the lairage and handed over cards to a mart staff member. The sellers didn’t enter the premises and were sent home immediately after dropping off calves.

Sellers came to the mart at allotted times to reduce potential contact with other farmers. Buyers were then invited at different times to view the calves and submit their bids in a tender process.

The highest bid was then relayed back to the seller via a phone to see if they were happy for the sale to go through.

“It’s trial and error, but were happy with how things worked out at our first sale,” mart manager Helen Kells said. “Our next job will be to try and arrange something for weanlings.”