Rate My Mart-midlands and west

TUBBY

folks

A good few chats got this started with what different marts are like and every fella you chat has different opinions.

To start it off, I look at a few local ones. Would value any opinions where is good to buy or sell.

Ballinasloe
Full of dealers and store cattle can be pricy, can hit on a good day but will be polled handy enough too.

Roscommon
Good cattle very dear and good weanling mart. Plain stuff gets the backs turned on them and can be picked up for feck all.

Castlerea
Very dear mart with great quality.

Ballymahon
Was a great mart to sell in but few enough buyers round now in it so has become one to buy in. Small enough numbers though from what I can see. commission dear too.

granard
Good weanling mart on a Monday evening. Has the northern boys down

Mohill
Hit and miss but generally very dear. Big numbers.

Tullamore
more dairy type cattle and for what they are, they are dear. Also cant book the cattle in I think which is a pain.

Headford
Dear for good stuff but can pick up a few nice ones.

Any opinions or different views of the marts welcomed.

bbam

Hi..
Is there a list/website of different marts with days & times.. Looking for evening marts to pick up some calves in the north-east preferably

reilig

TUBBY wrote: »

folks

A good few chats got this started with what different marts are like and every fella you chat has different opinions.

To start it off, I look at a few local ones. Would value any opinions where is good to buy or sell.

Ballinasloe
Full of dealers and store cattle can be pricy, can hit on a good day but will be polled handy enough too.

Roscommon
Good cattle very dear and good weanling mart. Plain stuff gets the backs turned on them and can be picked up for feck all.

Castlerea
Very dear mart with great quality.

Ballymahon
Was a great mart to sell in but few enough buyers round now in it so has become one to buy in. Small enough numbers though from what I can see. commission dear too.

granard
Good weanling mart on a Monday evening. Has the northern boys down

Mohill
Hit and miss but generally very dear. Big numbers.

Tullamore
more dairy type cattle and for what they are, they are dear. Also cant book the cattle in I think which is a pain.

Headford
Dear for good stuff but can pick up a few nice ones.

Any opinions or different views of the marts welcomed.

Loughrea - the worst booking system in the country. They have no set date for when they will start taking bookings for a particular sale. If you want to sell early you need to book at least 2 weeks before the sale. One of the best trailer wash hoses of any mart that I have been to however. Good prices can be hit and miss depending on how many exporters show up. One of the slowest auctioneers in the country in the bull ring who only averages about 20 an hour - have seen him go on late into the night and end up with no buyers around because they left out of frustration and the last 50 calves had to be brought home - on 2 different occasions.

Carrigallen - closer to the border than Mohill - so tends to get more northern buyers. Also close to cavan - a lot of cavan farmers come there to buy weinlings for finishing. Great auctioneers who are well with it and have a keen idea of prices and aren't afraid to push an animal on. Good booking service and one of the best managed marts in the country - by one of the few lady mart managers in the country.

TUBBY

BBAM, if you go to the journal website, they published it a while back. Type mart schedule or something like that in and you should get it. I printed one off a few years back of this site anyway.

defadman

carrigallen mart-has brilliant weanling sales with quality stock with quality buyers.

roscommon mart- great bullock sales and good weangling sales,however as sales goes on prices drop.

granard-good weanling sales but terrible bullock sales.

ballymahon- very average sales

mohill- poor with the exception monaghan day sales!

TUBBY

Defadman
When you say poor for mohill lets say, do ya mean that it a good mart for picking up cattle so cause poor prices.
I trying to sus where to go to buy decent stores (bullocks and heifers) and there is savage variation from place to place.

example would be I brought a nice weanling to granard one monday evening and wasnt getting too bad a price but thought he worth more. Brought him to mountrath the same week and got 120 euro more.

adne

Any one for feedback on

Ballymote:

Elphin:

Balla:

reilig

adne wrote: »

Any one for feedback on

Ballymote:

Elphin:

Balla:

Elphin is a good mart. But there's no point in going there unless you have your cattle well done. A lot of export buyers there. Its a mart for Chaorlais, Limousin and Belgian Blue cattle. other breeds won't achieve prices there.
Well run mart with auctioneers who are on the ball.

Drumshambo - a good mart. A farmers mart rather than a dealer or exporter's mart. Good mart for buying lighter cattle that would have come off poor ground and would do well if brought to good ground. Lots of farmers from longford, westmeath, meath buy their cattle there. Prices are good but its not a place for show calves - just ordinary stock.

Dowra - only a couple of miles down the road from Drumshambo (don't know how the 2 keep going). Much like Drumshambo mart. Nothing too fancy. Have always found it a great place to buy. Very poor land in this part of the country so many of the animals are poor but when brought to lowland they will do quite well. they do have a couple of special in calf heifer sales every year where heifers can reach remarkable prices.

pakalasa

Ennis Mart - Huge mart. They often have 3 rings selling at the same time. Very well run. Good place to sell, in my opinion. Lots of exporters. I've seen foreign buyers there too. Great restaurant there too. Food top class.

Sixmilebridge - Closed at the moment, but local farmers got a big bag of money together and bought it outright. Should give healthy competition to Ennis. Good place to buy stores. I always found them that bit cheaper than Ennis. Advantages - normally on a Saturday, and close to Limerick/Tipp border so gets a lot of cattle from there. Downside - wasn't that well run IMO. New owners should improove things, if only the giant potholes in the carpark.Restaurant - dire compared to Ennis.:D

thetangler

adne wrote: »

Any one for feedback on

Ballymote:

Elphin:

Balla:

Ballymote : Good mart well run. Great quality cattle hard place to buy cattle always plenty of demand.
Only 3 loading unloading gates but are well staffed so rarely many delays.

Elphin :Again good mart well run.
Serious quality cattle. plenty of demand.
Parking can be an issue and loading / loading along road.

Balla
Again well run.
Big numbers mostly good cattle. plenty of place to load unload but the gates are not manned so some people leave there vechicles there all day.

Just my thoughts

MfMan

Of the places I go to;

Tuam; great mart in it's heyday, one of the best in the west, over 20 years ago now. Not getting the numbers these days that they did and quality can be average. Still more of a 'farmers' mart than most I go to now; maybe I'm biased towards it but I find it a little easier to buy there than others. Weanling sales on Monday evenings, after main sale, attract northern and export buyers and get large numbers. Ok canteen. Also run efficiently by a lady manager. Parking and access very tight and slow when busy.

Headford; smaller mart usually, and a bit dearer, but usually some quality to be had. Handy because it's Saturday and popular even though it's in direct competition with Balla, (really big mart) on the same day. More local than distant dealers there. No canteen. Parking middling, access okish.

Loughrea; also on Saturday, mixed bag usually. Drovers very bad, take ages to put cattle together to send into the ring. Also, beat them too much IMHO and frighten the life out of them. Don't go there as much now. Access and parking generally fine.

Athenry; attracts big sales nowadays, reasonable quality. Has become increasingly popular perhaps due to new motorways making access much easier. Lot of dealers from around the place too. Tough place to buy cattle out of due to 'competition'. Bullock sale often starts later on Tuesdays if only one ring open, thus going on well into the evening if there's a big entry. Not badly organised but can be a bit slow to get cattle home out of. Canteen not bad. Access and parking very good.

There had been talk of Athenry and Loughrea amalgamating but seems to be gone off the agenda. Similarly, talk in future of Athenry and Tuam amalgamating and moving to a new site near proposed new road to Tuam, wait and see on it. Had been talk of Tuam moving to outside the town but with the collapse in property prices, doesn't look likely now.

Has Galway the highest amount of marts of any county with 9 (as far as I can count.)

MfMan

Check, make that 10.

reilig

Galway is a big county though. Leitrim has 4 marts. Its less than 1/3 the size of Galway county and has about 1/5 the amount of Herd Numbers.

johngalway

Maam Cross Mart.

Being run much better now since the change of ownership. Can book sheep and cattle in on a Thursday over the phone. Saturday morning for the sheep and cattle this time of year, when the sheep get busy the cattle are shifted to a Monday night.

Quite a number of sheep have been passing through in the past two years. Most locals have been taken aback by the numbers actually. Cattle, I'm not sure of as I don't keep any myself. There are reports of various sales on the website though.

redzerologhlen

I would say there is no mart in the country as big as ennis, Every week it is full to the last. Can be hot and cold though depending on whether there is farmers buying or not but there are always plenty of agents, dealers and exporters. Weanlings are on tuesdays and stores thursdays during the day. You never know what way gort will be and commision is a pure rob over there but its on thursday nights so its handier for the part time lads.

defadman

TUBBY wrote: »

Defadman
When you say poor for mohill lets say, do ya mean that it a good mart for picking up cattle so cause poor prices.
I trying to sus where to go to buy decent stores (bullocks and heifers) and there is savage variation from place to place.

example would be I brought a nice weanling to granard one monday evening and wasnt getting too bad a price but thought he worth more. Brought him to mountrath the same week and got 120 euro more.[/QU

i mean cattle quality is generally poor, however prices would be just average enough!

TUBBY

Yeah, I would have to agree with you there. Quality is not seriously good but a good lad will go a good price in Mohill cause there are very few light stores that are nice stuff there.

Another mart I thought of since is Portumna. Not a bad mart at all and have some nice stuff that always improves well when it hits a bit of decent grass.

defadman

was good prices for bullocks today, alot of very average bullocks though.alot of north men there!

Muckit

Don't forget Mountbellew also in Co. Galway

They moved from a Thursday evening to a Friday (same as Roscommon). Haven't been in it since it changed, so can't comment on how it's doing. Bought alot of weanlings there before it changed day. Found it a better place to buy than to sell. More a farmers mart, very few dealers. But as I say, that could have changed

It has a sheep mart also (not sure of day)

defadman

we always sell our bullocks in roscommon. we get great customers for our bullocks but might try few private sales for my best ones this year!

reilig

defadman wrote: »

i mean cattle quality is generally poor, however prices would be just average enough!

Problem with Mohill is that the better weinlings from the area tend to get brought to either Elphin, Carrigallen or Ballymote and only the plain ones are left to be sold there and this won't attract the proper buyers. So if you do bring an exceptional animal to mohill there won't be a buyer for it.

Mr.Success

Was in Roscommon today. there was a special sale of heifers. was mainly looking for yearlings. Full of the usual well fleshed charolais and limousines. i bid for a few nicley fleshed black angus heifers bout 360-400 kgs but could not get any at €800 or under. Found it very hard to buy as trade was cracking. brilliant day for the sellers as nearly all 2 year old heifers broke the €1000 mark

LostCovey

johngalway wrote: »

Maam Cross Mart.

Being run much better now since the change of ownership.

I hope Eoin repays the compliment the next time you're in Clonbur. That must be worth at least a pint and a sandwich

LostCovey

Mr.Success

Anyone know the auctioneers in the various marts? I know theres Hugh Mulvihill, Felim Kearns and peter Foley in Roscommon. Sum auctioneers serve 3 or 4 marts. Some of them get annoyed at the dealers claiming and buying all the good stock at small prices.

red bull

sell my cattle in tuam find i get the best prices goin there lots of buyers. management very helpfull when i enter my cattle get good advice on best day to sell. prices way ahead of headford and mountbellew for quality stock,they have a mart co op store too good value in feed and fertilizer i think

Kovu

defadman wrote: »

carrigallen mart-has brilliant weanling sales with quality stock with quality buyers.

roscommon mart- great bullock sales and good weangling sales,however as sales goes on prices drop.

granard-good weanling sales but terrible bullock sales.

ballymahon- very average sales

mohill- poor with the exception monaghan day sales!

Mohill is only poor on the run up to the monaghan day sales because of that way of thinking. I've often seen it dearer on the run up to the sales as cattle are needed and the farmers still have this narrow minded view of it being a great day.