Rules for centres are ineffective
Rules for centres are ineffective
By Simon Wragg
AUCTIONEERS in England and Wales say new arrangements allowing markets to act as collection centres for store cattle and calves are largely unworkable and, as such, ineffective.
The main criticism of the rules, which only came into force last week despite being approved in September, is that markets can only send stock to one buyer on each day.
This prevents auctioneers from spreading the cost of running a collection centre – such as handling, administration, disinfection and veterinary inspection – to an acceptable level.
Glyn Owens of auctioneer McCartneys says red tape makes the collection centre idea "a total non-starter". With many producers of store cattle only having a handful of stock to sell, usually of different age, weight and sex, making up lots for buyers is exceptionally complex, he warns.
"Ministers need to re-examine the rules. In practical terms we need to get that handful of stores into the market, weigh and sort them, and then make up acceptable loads for different buyers.
"This is how it operates in Scotland, and while I can see why it couldnt happen in some counties of England and Wales, those that are clear [of foot-and-mouth] should be allowed to do so," he says.
David Lock of Frome market, Somerset, suggests markets would need to handle roughly 100 stores/day to justify the expense. "And there arent that many buyers looking for that many stores in one hit."
With the number of individual movements off one holding being capped, the current regime has other unseen complications, he adds.
Even so, the Meat and Livestock Commission reports the first store cattle collection centre has already taken place last week.
Dolgellau market, Gwynedd, co-ordinated the movement of 30 steers and heifers from five local farms to a buyer in Yorkshire, confirms auctioneer Glyn Jarrett.
"The biggest obstacle has been arranging on-farm vet inspections. These have to be carried out close together as farms have only 24 hours to get stores moved under licence and into market," explains Mr Jarrett.
"We couldnt go ahead until all five farms had the all-clear, so if a vet was late, the sale would have been jeopardised."
The Livestock Auctioneers Association is aware of the strength of feeling among its members on the financial cost of operating under current rules and expects only a small proportion of stock to be handled this way.
LAA chairman Peter Kingwill says: "It will help smaller units shift some store cattle or calves. But it will take a lot of leg-work by auctioneers to get the process up and running.
"Like deadweight selling, we will have to crystalise a price beforehand and that will mean organising a large-scale rearer of finisher to inspect stock or calves on several units before agreeing a price," he says.
The LAA suggests some members will implement the collection centre rules to move stores as a service for clients, albeit at a cost. *
COLLECTION CENTRES
• Too much red tape.
• Lot of leg work.
• Vet inspections hard to organise.