Cattle dealing is unquestionably a fine art and many of whom are involved in it have had parents and grandparents involved in the trade – which is almost a family tradition in a sense.
Born in London and reared in Clonard, Co. Meath, Martin Joyce is certainly an exception to this – having the art of cattle dealing well mastered at this stage.
The owner of Leinster Livestock, a cattle dealing enterprise based outside Granard, Co. Longford, Martin studied Charted Accountancy at University College Dublin (UCD) and now also owns a number of supermarkets in Dublin’s inner city.
Agriland travelled to Leinster Livestock’s headquarters in Granard this week to find out about Martin Joyce’s cattle dealership business.
Martin buys cattle all year round from marts in the west of Ireland.
He then brings them to his yard in Granard, checks them in, and places them on display in his yard – where farmers come to buy the cattle they want (see video below).
The ‘state-of-the-art’ facility can house up to 400 cattle at full capacity.
State-of-the-art cattle yard
Cattle are collected from the marts with Martin’s cattle truck. They are unloaded on a concrete ramp.
For safety, the unloading area has a convex mirror at the bend and a barrier for the livestock handler to stand behind.
Once off the unloading ramp, the cattle then enter a state-of-the-art handling facility.
There is an anti-backing gate and a ‘S’ shaped chute to improve the flow of cattle.
Each animal is then individually restrained and receives a full pneumonia vaccination and has its ear tags cleaned.
The area is lit with sodium lighting so as to avoid any glare and allow the cattle to see where they are going – if unloaded at night.
Once vaccinated, the tags are checked to ensure they correspond with the animal’s respective blue card, the price of the animal is recorded and it is then let into a straw pen to rest.
Good quality bale silage and fresh water is available to animals at all times.
The selling
Martin explained to Agriland: “Farmers call here [to the yard] every week to buy cattle. There’s a farmer to buy everything. There’s farmers to buy cows and calves, runners and stores.
He explained that the majority of the stock he has on offer is “seasonally dependent” noting that he sells the majority of calves in the spring and weanlings in the back end of the year and a selection of larger cattle all year round.
“I always have 150-200 cattle on offer for farmers to choose from here. I sell every sort of cattle except bad cattle.
He noted that on average, Leinster Livestock turns over approximately “150 cattle per week or 8,000 cattle per year”.
Martin outlined that he could sell a farmer anywhere from 1-100 cattle in a single sale.
“Larger farms could buy anywhere up to 100 cattle off me, but the bread and butter of the job is farmers buying 10 cattle now and five cattle later and ones and twos all year round.
“I charge €30 on top of the mart price for the animal so the farmer doesn’t feel ripped off. It’s a numbers game, the more numbers I sell, the more I can make.
“Farmers want good cattle, but they want them at a price. The price of cattle has gone up and good ones are harder found and therefore more expensive.
“I buy as many good cattle as I can and I let farmers come here and pick the cattle they want.
“People like the choice. I have a sale here every Saturday and Wednesday.”
Target market
Martin explained his main customer base consists of young, part-time beef farmers who also have full-time jobs and “don’t have time to go to a mart”.
“I buy all good cattle and vaccinate them. The paperwork, animal welfare and bio-security is all done right.
“It’s the same as the shops, I just run it as a business. Farmers who want stock, ring me and I have them here.
“Farmers come to the yard, they pick the cattle they want, and they’re dropped to their yard and all the paperwork is correct. It’s just like a military operation.
“It’s the same as a supermarket in a way, farmers come here and pick the cattle they want from the pens, and every animal is individually priced.”
Starting out
Martin explained that he started trading cattle on a relativity small scale.
“I bought a truck and put a cattle body on it, then I built a shed and bought a few cattle and sold them.
“People started coming here to buy more cattle and away I went. It’s addictive in a funny sense if you have that type of personality – which I would.”
Future plans for the yard
Martin plans to construct a nine-bay slatted shed later this year and when complete, Martin will have shed space for over 500 cattle in the yard.
Martin also has plans to build a farm shop selling a range of animal husbandry products.
“I have more good-quality weanlings here on offer than most marts.
“Suckler-bred cattle become very expensive when trade is good, so I hope to build another shed for dairy-bred cattle.
Concluding, Martin said: “To be good at cattle dealing, you need power, and if you’re financially secure in a way, you can buy up cattle and sit on them for a while.”
Leinster Livestock is open every Saturday from 2:00p.m-6:00p.m and on Wednesdays from 7:00p.m-10:00p.m.