The lockdown system is par for the course for all marts in the future, Ciaran Roche, risk manager with FBD, told those at the 42nd annual ICOS conference on Friday.

Lockdown has come into operation in a number of marts around the country over the last number of months, where farmers have less access to pens and lairages in marts for safety reasons.

Roche said in the last 12 months there has been a number of significant injuries to farmers and sadly one fatality at marts. “The improvement of safety management systems is essential to running a safe mart and to its longevity. The lockdown system is par for the course for marts.

“Where lockdown has been implemented, it has gone down well. The key thing here is the safety of the public and employees and that cannot be left to chance,” he said.

Trying to change the culture and behaviour in marts is another issue, Roche said. “It takes a while to embed.” Roche also said the demographic of farmers is an issue.

“With older farmers, there is a mobility issue. They can’t get out of the way quite as quick and often they don’t recover [from an accident] as quick as a young farmer.”

Animals are getting bigger and wilder, Roche said, and fences are going up and up in marts.

Standard railings at marts should be at least 1.8m (6ft) in height when it comes to pens and races and at least 2.1m for the mart ring, he outlined.

“These are the basic concepts to be expected. How we manage livestock in marts needs to be reviewed,” he said.

Ray Doyle, ICOS livestock services executive, told the Irish Farmers Journal that there are plenty of marts with no lockdown that have never had a claim.

“There will be restrictions in place in all marts going forward and complete lockdown when cattle are moving into lairages and pens.

‘‘Collectively the entire mart industry will have to be more restrictive in the manner that we allow members of the public and livestock to mix. This will translate into a complete lockdown in some marts.

‘‘We have to work towards an industry wide lockdown situation, but it will take some marts perhaps years to accomplish this.

‘‘It’s a journey, as 60 years of a certain custom and practice can’t be changed overnight. Mart managers are all too aware of their health and safety responsibilities,” the ICOS livestock services executive said.