Second mart moves to offer auction for TB-restricted herds
A second livestock mart is to start offering a sale service for cattle herds that have been restricted as a result of a bovine tuberculosis (TB) outbreak, Agriland can reveal.
GVM Carrigallen Mart in Co. Leitrim confirmed to Agriland that it hopes to run the first sale of cattle from TB-restricted herds on Monday August, 11.
Mart manager Helen Kells, explained the mart's approach to how the sale will work.
She said: "The plan would be that we will be going with our scales out to farms and we will be taking photos, videos and weighing the cattle and then we will be putting that detail up in the ring for Controlled Finishing Unit (CFU) herds to bid on.
It is envisaged that farmers will be able to bid either online or ringside but only CFU registered herds will be eligible to purchase cattle in these sales.
The cattle in the TB restricted sales will not be present at the mart.
Kells said: "After our regular sale, say if it's cattle, bullocks and dry cows on a Monday night, we will be running our TB-restricted sale after that and if it's weanlings or calves, it will take place after the Saturday sale."
Last month, Kingscourt Mart in Co. Cavan in association with MartEye rolled out a first of its kind service for farmers with herds that are restricted as a result of a TB outbreak.
As part of the new service available to farmers, herds that are restricted under the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine’s (DAFM’s) TB Eradication Scheme, and have cattle to sell, can contact the livestock mart.
The mart venue has a large number of controlled finishing units (CFUs) that are “actively seeking to purchase all types of cattle”.
Subject to district veterinary office (DVO) approval, the mart will facilitate an online auction where CFU herds can bid on the entries.
Speaking to Agriland, Kingscourt Mart manager, Lisa Keenan, said: “Basically one of our crew goes out to the farmer with the restricted herd. The reactors have to be gone off the farm before we can actually sell the cattle.
“We go out, take a video of the cattle, circulate it to our feedlot customers and the form we see it taking is cattle sold on a price per kilo basis through an online auction.”
The first sale of cattle from restricted herds took place on Thursday, July 10, and saw eight Hereford bulls averaging over 500kg make €4.05/kg.
