A good year for marts, a bad year for farmers

Eight May '21 born Hereford cross bullocks, averaging 678kg, which sold for €1,820 each in Gortatlea Mart this December. Picture: O'Gorman Photography.

Wed, 27 Dec, 2023 - 14:48

Denis Lehane

Kanturk mart manager Seamus O'Keefe has never been a man to mince his words. And when I met him on Friday, he was as straight-talking as ever.

Kanturk Mart is an independently run mart, one of the few remaining.

"Looking back over the year, I suppose you could say that it was a good year for the marts, but a bad year for farmers," Seamus tells me.

"For farmers, milk prices were back, and while prices at the mart remained steady, expenses at farm level soared.

"Fertiliser, ration and silage all came with a bigger price tag in 2023.

"And of course, to compound matters further, we had bad weather.

"Some bad silage was made during the year, and this will make the winter a struggle."

And making life all the tougher for farmers, according to Seamus, is the way farming is now perceived.

"Farmers as food producers are underappreciated and tremendously undervalued," the Kanturk mart manager tells me.

"And there is a real struggle now in getting a younger generation interested in a life as a farmer.

"With the bureaucracy, the paperwork, never mind the hard work, it's understandable that young people are choosing a nice job away from the farm. A job where they can leave work on a Friday and not worry, or return again until Monday morning.

"Some might feel there are a lot of barriers, rules and restrictions within farming.

"It's important that farming is made more appealing so the next generation will continue and provide us with the food the world desperately needs.

"Here at Kanturk Mart, we are seeing a lot of cow herds booked in for the early part of 2024.

"Farmers selling out the herd because of old age, a change in farming circumstances, or perhaps because there is no young person willing to take up the challenge.

"2023 was a tough year for farmers, I'm hoping 2024 will see an improvement."

Young farmers switched on to online marts.

And while yes it is true that many younger people have left the farm behind to pursue a career where getting saturated is not an almost daily occurrence, however, there could well be the beginnings of a return of the young in farming down at the marts.

With marts having embraced online bidding, chiefly as a result of covid, one huge benefit has been that this has made marts accessible to all.

Not only can grandpa view the mart from his kitchen table, but young Johnny can view, and indeed purchase cattle from his desk anywhere in the world.

Cattle trading has now become global and this could well have an appeal to younger people. Something now noted by mart managers.

Martin Ryan Thurles mart manager has noticed the trend.

"The move to online sales has brought a greater number of young farmers back to trading in the marts.

"And we hope to see more young people get involved in the farming sector."

I spoke to Martin as the mart closed its doors for Christmas, I began by asking how he felt 2023 went from the marts point of view.

"Overall, 2023 was a good year for us in Mid Tipp Mart.

"We saw increased numbers across all sections of our sales from steers, heifers, cows and calves.

"To date, we have seen an increase in our turnover of €3.344 million in comparison to last year and an increase of 3,322 animals.

"Overall prices were up per head, with the exception of calves."

And with a good year for the mart having come to an end, I ask Martin about the year ahead.

"Going forward, I believe nitrates and calf welfare will be the two main issues for farmers in our catchment area.

"With the removal of derogations, there will be a greater pressure for land availability or farmers will be forced to cull cows from their herds.

"This year, we have seen a far greater number of cows going through our sales with fewer farmers milking into December in contrast with other years.

"Calf welfare will be another focus, especially if the movement age is increased in the coming months.

"I don't believe farmers have adequate accommodation to hold the number of calves involved for the required time."

And at the marts, how does Martin see 2024 playing out?

"Looking forward, we hope to see the swing back to the marts continuing.

"We are seeing more and more fat cattle coming to the mart.

"This, in turn, helps create competition within the market between processors.

"It also helps smaller scale operations avail of better prices."

As for Macroom mart, for mart manager Jerh O'Sullivan one of the highlights of his year was of course his parish Aghabullogue, winning the double.

But GAA aside, at the mart it was also all systems go.

"Yes the weather was poor at times and this affected prices and numbers but generally prices were good and sellers were happy overall," Jerh O'Sullivan said.

"The biggest challenge ahead will be nitrates and calf exports over the next number of years.

"My hope as a mart manager is of course that more farmers will trade with the mart and that they will receive a good market price for the stock they produce."

And finally, looking at two mart sales that were held just before the Christmas break, we head first for Kilrush mart, where the trade finished on a positive note (for sellers), with a good firm trade that has been with us for the past month, continuing on Wednesday, December 20.

Kilrush

Wednesday

No Breed Sex Weight €

3 Ch steers 306kg 960

2 AA steers 580kg 1670

1 Hr steer 515kg 1450

1 Lm heifer 275kg 830

1 AA heifer 255kg 600

1 Ch heifer 510kg 1390

1 Ch cow 790kg 1950

And at Ennis Mart on Thursday, December 21, (the final mart sale before the closedown for Christmas), it was a day to finish the year on a very positive note, with many customers anxious to buy stock before the end of the year.

Needless to say, the strong trade seen over the past few weeks was maintained in all rings.

Ennis

Thursday

No Breed Sex Weight €

4 Ch steers 706kg 2030

1 Hr steer 705kg 1670

1 Lm steer 635kg 1870

1 Fr steer 600kg 1440

2 Lm heifers 457kg 1480

1 Lm cow 910kg 2250

1 Fr cow 480kg 750

First sales of 2024