The outbreak of Covid-19 in Ireland gave Irish livestock marts one of two options: either go online, or cease trading for the duration of the pandemic.
Needless to say, the latter would have been of little benefit to anyone, and so farmers and livestock marts alike were hurled into the world of online trading. Irish cattle sales were being viewed through phone screens, laptops and tablets, countrywide and further afield.
As cattle marts have now reopened and farmers have returned to the mart rings – albeit with social distancing in place – the presence of online buyers avidly watching the sale from their homes, farms and full-time jobs has remained, with large numbers of cattle in mart rings still being bought by online bidders.
The move to online bidding during the pandemic shows just how well farmers and marts alike can adapt to change when needs be.
Taking a look at cattle movement data from 2020, we can see that farm-to-farm movements of cattle surpassed the number of cattle traded in Irish marts last year.
The table below gives a monthly breakdown of cattle movements from both marts, and directly from farm-to-farm.
| Month | Mart movements | Farm-to-farm movements | Total moves |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 69,693 | 74,882 | 144,575 |
| February | 150,476 | 135,343 | 285,819 |
| March | 169,699 | 248,841 | 418,540 |
| April | 80,749 | 290,547 | 371,296 |
| May | 97,959 | 219,908 | 317,867 |
| June | 104,338 | 109,386 | 213,724 |
| July | 117,071 | 76,293 | 193,364 |
| August | 125,099 | 65,491 | 190,590 |
| September | 167,348 | 79,391 | 246,739 |
| October | 229,948 | 119,502 | 349,450 |
| November | 127,478 | 128,784 | 256,262 |
| December | 90,832 | 88,079 | 178,911 |
| Total | 1,530,690 | 1,636,447 | 3,167,137 |
As the table above indicates, 3,167,137 cattle were traded between farmers in Ireland last year.
Just under half (48.3%) of all cattle traded in Ireland in 2020 were sold at marts, while the remainder were traded directly from one farm to another.
In 2019, 56% or 1,669,138 cattle went through Irish marts.
Farm-to-farm movements spiked last spring, as the country was in a full lockdown and marts were only beginning to find their feet with online bidding mechanisms.
The total number of livestock movements in 2020 increased by over 196,000 head of cattle when compared to the number of cattle movements in 2019 (2,970,472).
The Irish cattle marts have overcome significant setbacks in the past and their ability to adapt to change – which was shown evidently last year – will surely underpin and strengthen their purpose in the cattle trade for many years to come.
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