Proposals put forward to reopen sheep sales

A PROTOCOL to allow sheep sales in marts – through the ring as opposed to traditional pen sales – has been put forward by Ireland's Future.

Mayo's Gerry Loftus, leader of Ireland’s Future, has welcomed efforts by officials in the Department of Agriculture (DAFM) and Mart Managers of Ireland (MMI) to hopefully ensure the commencement of cattle sales in the not so distant future.

Now, he feels attention must immediately turn to sheep sales.

The vast majority of proposals put forward by Ireland’s Future, he said, have been accepted as protocol for cattle sales and the organisation now proposes that similar procedures be put in place to accommodate the sheep sector.

“The one big difference here is that cattle sales would usually consist of hundreds of entries, but sheep sales from mid-July to early October would consist of thousands of sheep,” he commented.

“In order to ensure safety and social distancing, we in Ireland’s Future feel the only safe method is that all sheep would have to be sold through the sales ring.

“We do not feel social distancing could be applied by selling sheep in pens.”

He continued: “Selling through the sales ring will be time-consuming where there are large numbers of sheep on offer.

“If we take an example of a sale of say 3,000-4,000 sheep, we feel it would be an impossible task to put that number of sheep through a sales ring on any one day.

“We propose that the sale is split into two days - one day to accommodate store and factory lambs and another day to sell breeding and cull ewes.”

The organisation acknowledged that two-day sales will be a 'financial burden' on marts, and is, therefore, calling on Minister Michael Creed to provide financial assistance so that marts can provide the sheep sector with a sales service.

It is also its view that entries for sheep sales must be pre-booked.

“We must look long-term and ensure that a protocol that all stakeholders can live with is applied here as we are going to have to live with Covid-19 for quite some time yet,” said Loftus.