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Cattle farmers face being locked into their seats at the sales ring and locked out of the cattle pens once bidding starts at more and more marts.
Personal injury claims are driving the cost of mart insurance up, prompting marts to curtail where farmers can walk during a sale.
Mart managers are being warned by insurance representatives and safety advisers that allowing farmers walk up and down passageways to look at cattle, once animals start moving in and out of the ring, is too dangerous.
It is second nature for farmers to go out to pens for a final check on cattle, ahead of bidding, to stand aside as cattle are moved about and even lend a hand driving them on.
But a number of marts are now dealing with liability claims after people were injured at sales.
As a result, insurance renewals for some marts have risen as high as €50,000 per anum.
A number of bigger marts have installed walkways above pens to allow farmers safe viewing of stock but smaller marts cannot afford the cost of doing this.
Some are now taking the approach of excluding everybody except staff from the lairage or central passageway once the sale gets under way.
Changes
“The changes need to be significant enough so as to reduce the likelihood of injury and resulting claims,” ICOS marts executive Ray Doyle told the Irish Farmers Journal.
Some marts are installing CCTV cameras in lairage areas to monitor both people and livestock and identify high risk areas and times.
Meanwhile, there are plans to develop a quality assurance scheme for marts. The system will be designed to bring all marts’ facilities up to a similar high standard.
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