This crisis will spell the end of the marts as we have known them

The financial pressures building for years are at breaking point for many marts and they are also facing an identity crisis as Covid-19 restrictions wipe out their social dimension

Every autumn, my father and I are regulars at the mart. Buying and selling cattle dominates life on the farm over this period. Usually, we’re buying weanlings. It can be a tricky business at the best of times, and keeping them healthy, as all farmers know, is not always straightforward. We rush to get the stock home from the mart for fear they have ‘picked something up’ in the pens, with pneumonia and other viruses too easily caught when mixing in a crowded space.

This year, however it won’t be just the health of the calves in the trailer we’ll be thinking about; now we’ll be wondering did we ‘pick something up’ ourselves?

Today marks two months since restrictions were imposed to quell the spread of the coronavirus, and those restrictions have dramatically changed business at the country’s livestock marts.

Like many sectors of the economy, the virus has upended the livestock mart business and for many marts, it threatens their existence.

The sector already faced an uncertain future prior to the pandemic. Soaring insurance costs and declining throughput have been undermining marts’ balance sheets for years.

Before Covid-19 some marts were in precarious financial positions. Many were just about breaking even and ticking over but still providing a service, according to Ray Doyle, livestock and environment executive of ICOS. Now, he warns, they face unprecedented challenges.

“We were disappointed we were knocked off in the first place because most European countries allowed the equivalent of a livestock mart to trade during their lockdown,” he says.

And when marts do get going again, it will be far removed from the experience farmers have become accustomed to over the years.

“We are going to be left with this restriction of numbers in place until there is a vaccine,” he says. “Going back to the way we were simply will not happen. The free-for-all of a mart… it could be a year or two before getting back to that.”

Challenges

For now, the challenges faced by the marts in adhering to social distancing is difficult.

“Many people think the 2m distancing is not to bad, but it’s a 2m circle and that actually equates to 130 sq ft.

“Rings are going to be really curtailed, and there is going to be a situtheir ation where buyers are limited.”

This is going to leave marts in the unenviable position of turning away loyal customers, Ray says.

“Who are you going to limit? Who are you going to exclude? How are you going to do it? Are you going to run a lottery?”

While marts are scheduled to reopen on June 8, it certainly will not be a return to normal business.

There is going to be a defined and very low number of buyers present, Doyle says, and it will require more staff to manage the situation. Marts will be held accountable and face being closed or losing their license if social distancing rules are violated, he warns.

Faced with these challenges, some marts have gone down the road of hiring external security. “It takes the personal knowledge out of the equation and it’s easier for them to turn people away,” Doyle says.

Where a mart in the past may have run several animal types concurrently, they now may have to have two-three sales to accommodate cows, calves, heifers and bullocks, for instance.

All these changes will impose extra costs on the marts at a time where their income has been decimated.

“We have missed the large volume of cattle and most marts see between 35-50pc of their total annual sales are in the spring time. They’ve now lost that. Some marts have lost 40-50pc of annual turnover.

“When you take that out of the system there is serious extra challenges with costs,” he warns.

Meanwhile, marts face the ongoing major challenges of rates and insurance.

“The insurance companies, FBD in particular, will have to step up to the mark in this regard and give meaningful and reflective cuts to premiums,” Doyle says.

“Giving tokens of one-for-all vouchers will not cut it for our members when some of them are paying €80,000.”

Further, he says that reduced footfall has greatly reduced exposer and risk of accidents happening.

Recent safety initiatives by the marts in the face of soaring insurance costs such as reducing farmers’ access to the pens have underlined another vital service of the livestock marts.

Jam-packed sales rings since these initiatives were introduced have further demonstrated the crucial social service marts provide in rural Ireland.

‘We are going to be left with this restriction on numbers until there is a vaccine. Going back to the way we were will not happen for a year or two’

Elderly farmers

“This is a key attribute of a mart that they are never paid for providing a social outlet for farmers and nor do they want to be,” says Doyle.

“Until we get back to a situation where you have no restrictions, that elderly farmer that went in, sat down the back of the ring and had a chat with his friends or a meal in the canteen… those days will not return for a considerable period of time and there will be great difficulty in facilitating and encouraging that again.”

Many marts have scrambled to provide online sales, dubbed the future of marts by some; Doyle says online trading options are definitely something the sector has to embrace.

However, he believes it will never