The Livestock Traders’ Association has called on the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine (DAFM) to clampdown on unlicensed cattle dealers operating in the Irish livestock trade.
Speaking to Agriland, chairman of the Irish Livestock Traders’ Association Adrian Walsh of Summerhill Livestock outlined: “There are a lot of issues in relation to unlicensed cattle dealers that are ducking and diving all the rules that are in place, and making registered cattle dealers look like fools.”
He believes that many unlicensed cattle dealers are “completely unregulated” and said cattle dealers who are registered with the department “are policed, and must adhere to all the standards in place”.
Walsh said: “Unlicensed dealers are buying cattle, bringing them home, if they are bought on a Saturday they have until 12:00p.m on Monday to contact the mart and give a herd number for the cattle to go into and skipping a movement on the department system.”
He added that these unlicensed dealers also “have no transport cert” for hauling cattle which “is also mandatory for licensed cattle dealers”.
Licenced cattle dealers
According to the department’s website, in the case of cattle, a dealer is defined as a person who purchases and sells to another person within a period of 30 days.
A person who buys and resells within 30 days, less than 100 cattle in any 12-month period, will be excluded from the requirements to be approved as a dealer.
The Mayo man believes there needs to be a clampdown on this and said “the department is not policing this at all; it’s a free for all”.
“Any person can go to any mart and buy livestock and say to the mart manager; ‘don’t put them cattle in my herd, I’ll ring you tomorrow with a herd number’. They can sell the cattle on and have one less movement on them.”
Furthermore, he outlined that dealers “are taking cattle from farms, bringing them to their yards and selling them with ‘no movements‘. They’re buying cattle, taking them home with no permit, keeping them in their yard and sending on the permit when they’re sold”.
The traders’ association chair outlined that some cattle dealers have approached him and said they are “considering deregistering because it would suit them better”.
Concluding, Walsh outlined: “Cattle dealers adhering to the rules and regulations want to see the regulations being enforced on these unlicensed dealers.”