To market, to market: how Ulster’s livestock marts are making provision for trading in the current ‘Covid-19’ climate

Livestock markets are inarguably one of the most important features on the regular Ulster farmer’s monthly calendar; an intrinsic strand of rural life in this corner of the United Kingdom, they are almost as vital for the social aspect they bring as well as that revolving around the buying and selling.

However, the large crowds that they naturally draw meant that when the full impact of the coronavirus pandemic hit our shores, important questions had to be raised regarding how they would operate ‘safely’ within the context of such a climate.

The answer that was finally reached with a degree of resignation was that they couldn’t, and so after hard conversations were had, decisions were made with the view to closing the gates of marts across the Province.

One of these was Ballymena Livestock Market, just off the Woodside Road in the edge of the busy Co Antrim town, which is one of the biggest in the Province, with a stock throughput of just under 60,000 cattle and approximately 165,000 sheep.

They hold their plant and machinery sales five times a year, with an average of over 1,200 lots per sale

“We have people coming here from all over the world,” says auctioneer and mart owner Shaun Irvine.

“For pedigree sales we attract buyers from across the mainland and the south of Ireland, and last year we actually sold to buyers from Italy and Spain.”

The Ballyclare man decided to build the family run firm here in North Antrim after the decision was taken to sell the three marts in Ballymoney, Cullybackey, and Ballyclare in 2005.

They had become dilapidated, town centre sites, and so were replaced by the Ballymena one.

At 17 acres, it is large and purpose-built, and even has a Ringside Cafe for the trading and visiting public to come and relax in.

“Our usual sales calendar would involve a Monday night sheep, cattle on a Tuesday night, Wednesday is for fat sheep, so that’s fat lambs, spring lambs and ewes, Thursday is for fat cattle, and Friday is for dairy stock suckler cows, so that’s beef cows with calves - weanlings, which are calves which are maybe eight to 11 months old, and then dropped calves, which are two weeks to three months old.”

Machinery sales are held on a Saturday, which means that for most of the year, the mart is in operation six days a week.

“On a Monday night, we would have been seeing 600 or 700 people,” says Shaun.

“Coming to the mart is as much of a big social event as it is about doing business.”

It was with this in mind that around St Patrick’s Day earlier this year, Shaun and his team “realised that there was going to be an issue” with the numbers in attendance.

“What we tried to do was basically say to people, look, don’t be bringing children, or coming if you are over 70, or if you think you have underlying health problems,” he said. “We tried to get the message across not to be coming unless you had business to do not; basically not to be coming for a day out.

“We also closed the cafe so people couldn’t sit around drinking tea and socialising.

“What we were trying to do was reduce the amount of people coming, and reduce the opportunity for them to socially interact as opposed to do business.

“It was very difficult to manage people at that stage; they weren’t realising the full consequences of (their potential behaviour).

“Despite our best attempts to tell people to space out, or rely on them to do their best, we realised that it was creating a massive problem for us, and while we were an essential industry and part of the food industry, and could technically have remained open, we took the decision ourselves to close.”

Shaun admits that it was a decision that was “very difficult” - and “having sat at home for the past five weeks, hasn’t got any easier”.

Today will finally see the re-opening of those doors - but Shaun and his fellow members of the Livestock Auctioneers’ Association decided on certain restrictions that will be applied in order for all marts to operate safely against the backdrop of Covid-19.

“So for example, sellers will not be allowed to remain at the mart - they bring the stock and leave them off. We will sell it conditionally for them, so that means it is subject to their satisfaction.

“We’ll call them as soon as it is sold and advise them on the price they have made, and they can let us know if they are prepared to accept that or not.

“The buyers then have to register with us to tell us that they’re coming to collect the stock. We then have to mark out our sale rings at two metre spacing, with spaces allocated to each buyer, and tell them where they have to stand until the sale is over. So basically, it will be a heavily scaled down version of normal buying and selling processes. And we will be operating like this from this week.”

Shaun said the reaction from local farmers had been very positive.

“There is a huge demand from farmers to get markets open again and to get stock moving,” he said. “Stock has been monitored in houses and sheds all winter, and people traditionally buy and sell in the spring, so April would normally be a very busy month.”

‘Farmers welcome the fact we’re open again for business’

Shaun admits that adjusting to the constraints of Covid-19 within a traditional market setting has been a “huge learning curve” for him and auctioneers across the country - but feels positive about the fact that as a good starting point, farmers have welcomed the news of the reopenings to begin with.

“We have to do our best to abide my these protocols and get stock moving again, and farmers have welcomed the fact that we’re going to be open again for business,” he said.

As well as obvious social distancing measures, there will be a number of points dotted around the mart for hand sanitisation to take place, and traders are permitted to wear masks if they feel they want to. For those buyers and sellers who would still prefer not to come to the markets, online purchasing will be an option.

Shaun says lots of work has been going on behind the scenes to get everything ready.

“There has been a lot of work pre-booking stock, and explaining the selling to people, and we are also going to provide - and this is completely new to us as well - an online service so farmers will be able to view the sales online, as well as bid for stock online. So that’s a new concept for us.”

As Shaun observes, times are changing, and for some farmers, the move to online selling and buying will come very naturally. But for those who prefer to see their new purchases in the flesh first of all, that can still all be catered for as well. “Some may feel that if you’re buying an animal, it’s not like buying an inanimate object, and you can’t really beat seeing it. However there will be people who will choose not to come to market at these particular times, and they will welcome the fact that they will still to be able to purchase stock. So overall, we’ve had a really positive response to it. And we’ll know more after next week just how successful it has been. But certainly we see these online auctions as likely to be very useful in the future, particularly in the likes of pedigree sales. Plus as well, in terms of those people who express interest from across the water and the south of Ireland - due to the social distancing and essential travel restrictions they might not want to come to the marts up here. So they will be glad of the opportunity to purchase stock online.”

Around 20 marts across Northern Ireland closed on March 23 following concerns about farmers failing to comply with social distancing guidelines, prior to the regulations coming into force.

It’s now expected that they will resume business on a phased basis. A spokesperson for DAERA welcomed the news and said they had been in contact with the operators in recent weeks and had been reassured that “robust operational protocols” had been developed which would allow them to operate safely.