While I still remember the hustle and bustle of the old mart in Gort where cattle, jeeps, farmers and traders were teeming around (now a Lidl shop and car park), little could prepare me for my visit to China’s largest mart.

Firstly, unlike most normal marts which might open once a week for a period, Zhang Bei mart on the border of Hebei and Inner Mongolia province is open all day, every day.

Trailers carrying cattle queue from the entrance as I arrive in the early morning and the coming and going continues throughout the day. The mart itself is outdoors and dusty. My presence immediately garnered the interest of the traders.

A scrum of people arrived around me, with both the interest of getting a selfie with ‘the first foreigner’ that they had ever seen at the mart and, more importantly, to understand if I wanted to buy cattle as the opportunity to sell to an Irishman would be a big honour and a feather in the cap.

I was in the market and looking to assist a client of mine to understand the types of cattle that might be available for some new feedlots. The prices are low at the moment, but an increase is expected throughout this year as trade and turbulence hits the market.

I went into the mart and began to look around at the various trailers. The cattle were largely a mixture of Simmental and Simmental cross, mostly from the plateaus and plains of Inner Mongolia. The mart also has a lot of cull cows and even some donkeys.

Traders offer one price for people who buy a full trailer (which could be between eight and 10 cattle) and a slightly higher price if you choose one or two from the trailer.

The trade is done without animals coming off the trailer and most buyers rely on middlemen who have a small shed and holding unit next to the mart.

Lighter cattle were trading at 10RMB/kg (€1.27/kg) liveweight and heavier animals were trading at 12RMB/kg (€1.52/kg) liveweight.

It’s mostly middlemen and some representatives of major slaughterhouses, but they tend to try to keep a low profile and send representatives to keep the prices down.

Looking at most of the cattle, the genetics are fine, but clearly a lot of the animals are much older and lighter than the sellers are saying. The main risks I could see was to pick animals who wouldn’t finish out well and poor genetics can be plagued by disease.

I then visited the home of my middleman and his wife. We made a video that went on TikTok and she used some sort of filter that made me look about 20 years younger.

The middlemen normally purchase around 45-50 cattle off these trailers for their clients, hold the cattle in the shed behind their home and prepare them for transit. They use a new transit bolus and electrolytes to prepare the animals for the long journey.

This mart has been open since 1959 and has a long history. On any one day between 5,000-15,000 cattle are traded. The mart charges €2.50 to the buyer and the same to the seller.

In a country where the beef industry is looking to modernise, it is still through these types of markets that the vast majority of animals pass.

No smart weighing system, no animal identification systems, no records of vaccines or medication. The lack of information creates fun trading conditions and people love the cut and thrust.

From Gort to Inner Mongolia, the buzz of marts transcends culture and language.