Clogher Mart has been at the heart of the vibrant agricultural community in the Clogher Valley for seventy years now and during this time has built a reputation as one of the leading livestock auction marts in Northern Ireland. As the 70th-anniverary celebrations draw closer, we touched base with mart manager Robert Simpson for an update.
In November, 2024, Clogher Mart marks 70 years as the very bedrock of the agri industry not just in County Tyrone but across Northern Ireland. Owned and operated by Clogher Valley Livestock Producers Company Ltd since its formation in 1954, Clogher Mart exudes the ethos that a livestock mart is as much about the people as it is about the livestock, and this is why it has invariably been a veritable hive of activity on sales day for seven decades.
With up to three thousand cattle and sheep on offer every week, and a team of experienced auctioneers on hand, Clogher Mart is firmly established as one of the largest and most progressive livestock markets on the island, playing a pivotal role in Northern Ireland’s vital agricultural economy.
An enjoyable and rewarding experience is always guaranteed at Clogher Mart due to the central and easily-accessible location, exceptional facilities, the large number of high-quality livestock available on Thursday nights and Saturday mornings / afternoons, and of course the experience and professionalism of their enthusiastic auctioneers, hardworking yardmen, drovers and office staff who together ensure the smooth running of each and every sale.
Mart manager Robert Simpson is justifiably proud that Clogher Mart is this year celebrating its 70th anniversary. Will there be a social event to mark the occasion? “It’s a great landmark for us and there aren’t too many marts abut that long,” he notes. “I understand the anniversary falls in November and we are definitely going to organise something once we are absolutely sure we have the exact date confirmed.”
In December, Robert will have been manager at the mart for five years and he’s glad to report that sales days are busier than ever. “The rings are extremely busy and there are more men showing cattle than killing them at the minute,” he comments.
Considering that Covid and the associated public health restrictions struck not long after Richard joined the team, it’s amazing to see that things have turned around so dramatically again. Remote sales were introduced in response to Covid and online viewing and buying remains a massive part of the everyday mart experience today, something the manager of Clogher Mart believes is not going to change now:
“Online sales are still very popular. It’s never going to go away because it suits a lot of people. Many of them have never come back to the mart since Covid but continue to do business. To give an indication of the amount of online sales we have, on Saturday, June 1st, we had a rather small cattle sale and of the 661 cattle sold that day, 63 of them were purchased online.
“So, it was a breakdown of roughly 90 per cent ringside purchases and 10 per cent online. There were 838 online viewers that day – and remember that was only a small sale. The number is generally much higher. All the rings are online now, from a drop calf to a cull cow, and we have one man who buys fat bullocks with us every week and he has never set foot in the mart. That’s how things are today and it’s here to stay.
“If somebody had said to you pre-Covid that mart sales were going to be online you’d have laughed at them but that’s the reality today and it suits a lot of farmers down to the ground.”
Having said that, there is a strong community element to mart day and traditionally these gatherings have been regarded as a great outlet for people. Clogher Mart has always embraced the community spirit and there’s always a great atmosphere about the place on sales day.
“Many will say that there is something about being here,” Robert agrees. “The social aspect of it is important and it is like a community. Indeed, there are some who come in here on Saturdays and never buy an animal. They come in to see what’s going on and have dinner in our award-winning canteen and enjoy the day out.”
Clogher Mart is so popular that things can get incredibly busy. On one particular night last May, there were 3,200 animals sold, with buyers and sellers flocking in from all over the province, and Richard didn’t depart the premises until 2:40 the following morning!
“The central location is a big thing, and also the timing of our sales. The sheep sales are busy because they take place on Thursday evenings and that suits the part-time men. The way farming has gone, 80 per cent of farmers are part-time today. It’s the same with the cattle sales – Saturday suits a lot of people and again you are catering for the part-time men.
“We are catering to everybody’s needs. This includes keeping the fat sheep and the breeding sheep separate. We started specials with breeding sales because we were getting a lot of ewes and lambs on Thursdays, so we started selling them separately on Tuesday nights from January until May, the same with hogget and ram fairs in August and September.”
A full-time team of four is employed at Clogher Mart and there can be up to 50 staff on hand on Saturday mornings and afternoons when the cattle sales are in full swing. “Everyone who comes in to work here is vastly experienced and 90 per cent of them are from a farming background,” Robert reveals. “Good staff are hard to come by and it seems like nobody wants to work anymore, so we are very lucky to have them.”
Clogher Mart opened for business almost exactly seven decades ago on a small site across the road from the existing premises, which is now a veterinary practice. The mart is today owned by brothers Harrison and Edwin Boyd alongside Bryan Barnett and his son Michael, who also run sister auction, Lisnaskea Livestock Sales in Fermanagh.
Over the past 70 years and counting, Clogher Mart has come a long way and there’s plenty more where that came from! “We’ll keep our standards high and push on, but you can’t take anything for granted these days,” Robert concludes. “The future is unpredictable and you don’t know what the next generation is going to be like. A lot of young people don’t seem to want to work and there is also no incentive for them to stay at home full time with a farm.
“You’d hope there will be a market for livestock sales in the future as it is a big part of our identity but it’s hard to predict and you can’t look too far ahead. The average age of the men around our ring is 50 or over now and it is rising all the time, and you do wonder where the younger generation is going to come from, but we have the staff, facilities and experience here to keep providing a brilliant service for as long as it’s needed.”
Clogher Valley Livestock Producers,
Station Road,
Clogher,
County Tyrone.
Tel: 028 8554 8279 / 028 8554 8500
Email: [email protected]
Web: cloghermart.com
First published in Irish Tractor & Agri magazine Vol 12 No 3, September/October 2024
Clogher Valley Livestock Producers
