The Irish Cattle Breeding Federation (ICBF) ‘Mart Tracker’ – an online tool which will allow farmers to see what animals are for sale in marts each day – is now live.
According to the ICBF the new Mart Tracker will provide detailed information on the animals available for sale.
Every animal put forward for sale at a mart has its passport scanned upon arrival and the details of the animals are then transferred to the ICBF to check if there are genetic index details available e.g. Euro-Star details, CBV, etc.
Once the passport is scanned, the ICBF will know that the animal is for sale in the mart that has sent in the tag number.
Mart Tracker
The Mart Tracker will show the lot number, the number of animals in the lot, the date of birth of the animals, and the sex and breed will be available for all animals.
Genetic information will only be available on animals that meet the criteria, as follows:
- Replacement/Terminal/Dairy Beef Index (DBI): Sellers’ herds must be signed up to HerdPlus and/or the Suckler Carbon Efficiency Programme (SCEP);
- Commercial Beef Value (CBV): Sellers’ herds must be signed up to HerdPlus and the animal must be genotyped.
The new application can be accessed via the ICBF website and you do not need to log into an ICBF/HerdPlus account to access the Mart Tracker and it can be accessed on a mobile device or on a desktop computer.
Once the user clicks into the Mart Tracker, they will be presented with a number of dropdowns where they can enter their criteria.
The dropdown criteria is as follows:
- Select breed type (dairy, dairy x beef or suckler);
- Select mart;
- Select sex;
- Select age.
The select breed type option is the only one which you must select, according to Erin Kennedy from the ICBF.
For example, if you set the breed type to suckler and click search, you will be presented with a list of marts and the number of suckler animals for sale in each mart.
You can then click into a mart to view the list of animals and their details and the list of animals can then be sorted and filtered on each of the headings.
Impact
Agriland asked the ICBF to explain how this Mart Tracker will make a difference to the farmer buying calves and also for the farmer selling calves and whether or not it will positively impact calf markets.
The ICBF believes that marts and sellers will have more customers for their animals and that buyers will be able to save a lot of time by knowing exactly what animals are for sale in marts.
According to the ICBF farmers can access the mart tracker from their phone or home computer and see how many animals are for sale in their local mart and how many of these meet their criteria.
They can also see the lot numbers of the animals of interest, which means they can go straight to those pens to look at the animals when they arrive at the mart.
In addition to this if there are no animals suitable in the mart on that day, the farmer will not have to spend the day around a mart ring or even watching online when they know there are no animals suitable for them in the mart.
Erin Kennedy believes that the Mart Tracker has the potential to be a “game changer” for the mart trade and will be a positive development for the marts “as well as sellers and buyers.”