Who doesn’t love a good day out at the mart? Well as it turns out, not everyone and for various reasons. When I asked the question recently on social media I got many different answers from time/hassle/danger/noise and the “I just don’t like them places”. Most who said they loved the mart was from the social interaction, the chat, and some love it for the mart canteen.

We go to marts, but normally only in August for brood ewe sales and October/November for weanlings. Two to three hours in it does us. I prefer one or two marts over others mainly because of the type of stock sold there and also because of their professional and helpful staff. We rarely sell at marts. The main reason I dislike marts is because I get really annoyed when I see a lot of the illogical or brute force some people bid for and buy their stock with.

A lot of these thoughts were reinforced with me today. A neighbour who is sometimes a very busy dairy farmer asked me for a favour to sell his Holstein bull calves for him. So off I went today with his calves in anticipation of what lay ahead, more so than normal.

After the recent beef protests, I wanted to see what affect this had on trade. I have always been told by more experienced men than myself if the factory price rises by €10/hd, stores will be up €50. Before the beef protests the same calves made €45-€80, today, two weeks later the same calves were making €110-€150.

Prices

When we went to buy our weanling heifers, the first thing we checked that morning was the heifer price in the factory and work back from that based on a kill out percentage of the average weight we kill our heifers at. It was the same in one of the companies I worked for, a leading fibre cement slate manufacturer. They knew the end price of their product and worked back from there on their costs to leave themselves a margin.

Off we went with a rough €/kg guide to help our decision making. You should never be afraid to take in your hand as there is always another beast around the corner. Marts are a fantastic place to attend but you need always be mindful to think with the calculator and not let the emotion of the day get to you. There is always tomorrow.

And as the financial ombudsman says “the value of your investment may fall as well as rise”.

*Ronan Delany runs a sheep and beef enterprise with a small herd of pedigree Belted Galloway cattle at Dunshaughlin, Meath. You can follow him on Twitter @gaulstownfarms.