Nestling in the fertile Lagan district of East Donegal, Raphoe Livestock Mart has been providing an invaluable service to local farmers since its inception in July, 1961. We travelled to the North West and met manager Ann Harkin to get an insight into day-to-day operations at one of Ireland’s premier marts
Catering for farmers from counties Donegal, Derry, Sligo, Leitrim and Monaghan, Raphoe Livestock Mart is a veritable hive of activity all year around, with sales taking place up to five days a week during the busiest period.
Sheep sales on Mondays and cattle sales on Thursdays are a constant, but the addition of regular nightly sales (breeding ewes and weanlings) as well as open nights means that there’s rarely a dull moment here.
Ann Harkin has been managing the extremely popular, well-appointed mart since 2002, having joined as secretary in 1989. As Raphoe Livestock Mart (PRSA Licence Number 001089) is a co-operative owned by farmers, she says her main responsibility is to represent the shareholders first and foremost:
“I’m not working for myself – I have a 22-strong management committee and I have to answer to the shareholders. It’s not about individuals, it’s about looking out for the people who are backing, helping and supporting you,” she notes.
“I try to treat everybody fairly and the decisions I make aren’t always popular with everyone but I’ll always make the decision that is best for the people I’m representing. This isn’t a popularity contest.
“We wouldn’t be here without the buyers and sellers who make our mart a success week in, week out, so I’d like to acknowledge their continued support. They are tremendous people. The farming community has suffered greatly with the price of feed, diesel and labour all soaring, but this is what
Ireland is made of and the farmers are the shoulder that’s keeping the country afloat.
“I couldn’t speak highly enough of them. They work long hours for a modest return and they can always be depended upon but don’t get half enough recognition.”
As a female mart manager, Ann has often heard herself referred to as ‘a woman in a man’s world’ but she dismisses such talk as complete nonsense: “I believe equality is important and gender should never come into it. If you are capable and do your job properly and run the mart competently, in accordance with the rules and regulations, that’s what should always come first.
Capability should be considered first, before anything else.”
One of the unique traits of Raphoe Livestock Mart is that farmers are paid on the day – something that not too many marts around the country can lay claim to. “There are no credit arrangements here,” Ann confirms. “I have to compliment the buyers for paying on the day and commend the customers at Raphoe Mart for paying good prices. Payment is on the day the stock is purchased and the farmer is paid within the hour. It’s important that the farmer goes home with his money – that’s the way it should be.”
It would probably be an exercise in understatement to refer to Raphoe Livestock Mart as busy…
“Sales used to be fortnightly back in the early days but can be up to four or five times a week now,” says Ann. “As well as the sheep and cattle on Monday and Thursday respectively, weanlings start on Tuesday night in mid-February and run to the end of April.
“From September until November, we have weanlings on Tuesday nights and breeding ewes on Wednesday nights. Night sales in August, on Wednesdays, are hoggets, breeding ewes and rams until the first week in October; then weanlings again from October until November.”
Raphoe Livestock Mart’s premises are also used by a number of nearby clubs and societies for their
sales on open nights. These include Donegal Friesian Club, Tirconaill Blackface Sheep Association,
Raphoe Horse & Pony Club, Donegal Suffolk Sheep Society, Donegal Multi-breed Sheep Association and Donegal Texel Sheep Society. We accommodate the rear breeds here and are trying to promote more of this going forward.
An inordinate amount of work goes into making sure that everything runs smoothly. “It’s five days in October and it’s certainly not easy to get everything ready day after day,” the manager continues.
“But we have great help from our staff – 22 part-time workers in the yard plus three full-time in the office and two full-time auctioneers.”
Sellers bring their stock from counties Donegal (from Malin Head to Glencolmcille), Sligo and Leitrim, while buyers are mostly local-based, within a 25-mile radius, incorporating Donegal and Derry (the border is approximately ten miles away).
“We always get big crowds here and it’s very busy all the time. On the day of the sale, we begin intake at 7am and start the sale at 11am. Generally, it wouldn’t be over until around 4pm. You could sell 80-100 cattle in an hour, so it’s very, very busy.
“There’s more fat cows coming through the ring now. We used to have two rings but we made a decision to keep all the buyers in one ring because it creates a better atmosphere. We always start the Thursday with fat cows, then springers, then cows with calf at foot, then breeding bulls, bullocks and beef bulls before finishing up with heifers.”
In keeping with the high quality of facilities to be found across the property, the canteen at Raphoe Livestock Mart is excellent: “We actually get a lot of compliments about the canteen, which is one
of the best in the county,” Ann told us. “A lot of people look forward to coming in for a meal and I know many farmers bring their wives in for lunch; the food is that good. It’s a wonderful canteen and the staff there are lovely. Valerie Wallace runs it and she has been here a long time and does an outstanding job.”
There’s a great vibe about the place on auction day. “The mart is very personalised and you see the same people all the time. It’s family-orientated and there’s a great bond between all of the people.
There’s a brilliant social aspect to it and even farmers who have retired come back to be a part of that. You always look forward to seeing people, even though there might be the odd disagreement some days.
“We have ample parking and there are plans afoot to enhance the intake area and the overall structure. We could perhaps make the intake area more central as it’s quite a long mart and at the moment drovers have to walk long distances to pen animals. We always pen all animals individually to make sure there’s no stress on either man or beast, and this is proving to be pretty time-consuming.”
Looking to the future, Ann says diversification is a possibility but adds that Raphoe Livestock Mart won’t stray from its tried and trusted area of expertise: “I would like to diversify but it’s important to find the right area to diversify into,” she concludes. “No matter what we do here, it will always be farmer-orientated so we’ll look for possible openings in that area. I am assisted by a working committee of six and we meet fortnightly to discuss the daily running of the mart – diversification is one thing we have spoken about.”
Judging by their impressive track record to date, whatever Raphoe Livestock Mart do in the future, it is almost certain to be a resounding success!
Raphoe Livestock Mart,
Raphoe Demesne,
Raphoe,
County Donegal.
Tel: 074 9145385
Email: [email protected]
Taken from Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 6 No 2, March/April 2018
