DEAR SIR:

We now know just how unconcerned our politicians and media really are about coronavirus afflicting whole swathes of rural Ireland. On the other hand, concern for the fates of Dublin pubs, clubs, parties and football matches, receives top billing in our national media and parliament. Furthermore, the impacts of the pandemic on Michael O’Leary’s stock market valuation; and the prospects of Tiger Roll winning his third Grand National are absolutely critical. To our national media and our politicians - these things are far more important than the fates of 100,000 Irish farmers. Accordingly, a few reminders of the real facts of life, in the real Ireland of today, may be in order.

The mart is where a large part of farmers’ incomes are paid out to them

For most farmers right across Ireland, their local cattle mart is now their new church. It is also their local restaurant and their social centre. Specifically, this is where farmers meet at least once or twice a week. This is where they do the essential business of buying and selling. The mart is where a large part of farmers’ incomes are paid out to them.

The cattle mart is also the place where many lone farmers eat a hot meal on a regular basis

In the absence of the local post office and bank, this is another very essential and highly valued mart service. The cattle mart is also the place where many lone farmers eat a hot meal on a regular basis.

In rural Ireland, the local livestock mart provides ‘connectivity’ free-of-charge

Equally essentially for the seriously isolated and vulnerable people - which most of them are - this is where farmers also converse, socialise, swap yarns and share experiences. So, by proxy, the mart is also a farmer’s mental healthcare and therapy clinic. Other social groups in urban Ireland crave for connectivity, and are prepared to pay for it. In rural Ireland, the local livestock mart provides ‘connectivity’ free-of-charge. In a word, the local cattle mart helps farmers keep everything together - from body and soul to farm business, money, friends and neighbours.

Roadmap to a crisis

But there’s a downside to all this. This is because your local cattle mart is also a hotspot for coronavirus to colonise and find a victim. So, it should come as no surprise to anyone that your local livestock mart is a classical coronavirus blackspot. Social distancing may work in a Dublin restaurant or supermarket. But keeping farmers apart around the sales ring in any mart, is as hard as trying to keep bees from a honey-pot. Leo Varadkar may recommend that people in a supermarket queue should stand at least two metres apart but you just try telling that to farmers around a sales ring in any cattle mart today. For all these reasons, a violent eruption of a coronavirus pandemic is now both imminent and inevitable, right across rural Ireland; your local cattle mart is at the epicentre of that eruption.

For all these reasons, the prices of cattle and sheep are likely to fall further off a cliff any day now

At the same time, the difficulties of foddering and herding cattle at home, continue to grow inexorably ever more critical and more hazardous: Therefore a surge in cattle numbers coming into marts is now also both imminent and inevitable. For all these reasons, the prices of cattle and sheep are likely to fall further off a cliff any day now.

Solutions

Fortunately, our cattle marts are well equipped to deliver a highly practical and very effective way of preventing that. They are also equally well equipped to curtail the transmission of coronavirus. Specifically, this can be achieved by immediately slashing the number of farmers around the sales ring. Simultaneously, the shortfall in bidders around the sales ring will be more than compensated for by ramping up the numbers of bidders and buyers online. In fact, in this way, the numbers of online bidders and cattle buyers will be multiplied several fold and this will not only cut the transmission of coronavirus, it will also be a big boost to cattle prices.

The technology that records and shows that information to buyers around the sales ring is pretty basic

These objectives can be achieved simply, cheaply and effectively via live video cameras installed over and around each sales ring. Buyers around the sales ring can already read an electronic record of each animal’s weight, age, health status, breeding history, milk yields and CAP subsidy payments profiles. The technology that records and shows that information to buyers around the sales ring is pretty basic.

It is now only a very small step to bolt on three small interlinked video cameras to that technology. These can then make a video of each animal as it is walked around the ring. Placed just above and around the sales ring, these three interlinked video cameras will supplement the physical specifications of each animal. These can already be read on the mart’s internal screens as each animal comes into the sales ring. Specifically, the video will also show clearly all the finer points of an animal’s own unique profile, eg condition and health; shape and conformation; coat colour and markings; sturdiness and gait; limitations and potential etc.

These cattle buyers may be located many miles away from the mart. They can now use their smart phones to bid for cattle in the sales ring and buy the cattle they fancy

All these cattle can be made available online to an unlimited number of certified and reputable buyers. These cattle buyers may be located many miles away from the mart. They can now use their smart phones to bid for cattle in the sales ring and buy the cattle they fancy. Before anyone says this can’t be done, ponder this - everything from ladies lingerie, to mens suits, to pairs of shoes and antique pots and pans, are now up online. From there, they are being bought and sold and paid for, every hour of the day. For the sake of all their patrons and customers, it’s high time our cattle marts got wired up to the internet too.