The Irish Farmers Journal has a long history of supporting Irish livestock marts, given the level of transparency and security of payment that they provide to farmers buying and selling stock. The motivation behind developing MartBids has been to help marts provide their buyers with increased information in advance of animals being presented for sale.

“We look forward to continuing to work with mart managers to further develop the range of tools available through MartBids,” said editor and CEO Justin McCarthy.

Central Auctions chair Ray Dempsey said: “Our marts have always been to the fore when embracing technology. More and more farmers are embracing mobile technology and MartBids brings a valuable mobile tool into the marts business for every generation of buyers and sellers.”

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MartBids is brought to you by the Irish Farmers Journal in partnership with livestock marts and it is here to help your farming business.

In simple terms, all of the information that is displayed on the mart board is now available on your smartphone, long before the animal enters the sales ring.

MartBids allows farmers to make more informed decisions in advance of placing a bid. Traditionally, farmers only had that split second to decide if the animal is young enough to be finished on their farm, to decide that the number of moves works for their system or to note whether or not it is coming from a BBQA herd.

MartBids allows you to look at all of these details in advance.

While viewing lots in advance, farmers can mark their favourites, which will create a list of the animals that they intend to bid on. For buyers who only buy heifers, filter to see all female livestock offered that day. If you only buy Charolais or Simmental heifers between 12 and 14 months of age, then filter for those animals. Find the list, mark your favourites and watch the current lot until they come into the sales ring.