My father just loved going to the mart and would have been in at least three marts per week. In his earlier years, he would have been buying stores to finish but as time went on, that changed, and he turned to mainly buying breeding stock.

When he was buying stores, there were many occasions when he bought heifers that subsequently turned out to be in-calf. In those days, heifers were sold as ‘‘free of calf’’ and if there was any problem you could take them back or get a refund. I remember my father returning lots of heifers, getting his money back and getting paid for grazing them.

In my opinion, it is unfortunate the way things have changed as in most (not all) marts in Northern Ireland, the cattle are sold as seen and there is no come-back.

I was recently talking to another farmer who is at his wit’s end due to buying heifers that have turned out to be in-calf. Some calved at 14 months of age with devastating consequences. The upset this is causing the farmer is obviously nothing compared with the stress on this young animal.

I am not one to advocate more rules and regulations, but I firmly believe that someone needs to be held accountable. It should work both ways in that the seller should ensure animals are not in-calf (scanning them if necessary) and the buyer should refuse to buy anything that is not guaranteed ‘‘free of calf’’. I also think that the mart should act as the facilitator to ensure this happens.

There was also a time when you could not sell horned cattle in the mart. Well, times have surely changed as it now looks like the cattle must have horns to be able to sell them at all. Does nobody care anymore?

The safety risk that these pose to both farmers and other animals is unimaginable.

Somebody needs to get a grip of this before someone is badly hurt. I realise that it is not a nice job disbudding calves, but could you live with yourself if someone got killed or badly injured by one of your animals?

Bulls

Then there is the other thorny issue of castrating bull calves. I would say that 90% of the male weanlings that go through the mart in NI are bulls. Well, this one is very simple and it is just a matter of putting on a rubber ring shortly after birth.

I often wonder why sellers complain about the price that they are getting for their cattle when so many of them couldn’t be bothered doing anything to help the buyer. On the other side of course, the buyers are often no better, particularly when they try to do the seller by choosing who buys what when the animal enters the ring.

It is little surprise that I just hate going to marts. There is absolutely no relationship between the buyer and the seller. In my opinion, the marts have to carry some of the blame as they are the middle men and it should be up to them to broker a good deal for all.

All it takes is a little bit of goodwill from all parties and if the marts are not prepared to play their part then there is the option for buyers and sellers to work out private deals between themselves.

The marts serve an important role in the local community, and in setting the price of cattle, but some changes are definitely required.