New role for mart in £6m revamp

Farmers weighing their sheep at the collection centre

A cattle market in west Wales has reinvented itself as a collection centre for animals which are destined for abattoirs.

A £6m investment has allowed the Carmarthen mart - for generations a traditional place for buying and selling livestock - to develop a whole new business dimension.

Crisis in Wales

Total confirmed cases UK-wide 1,709 - with 92 in Wales

Powys - 54 cases

Anglesey - 13 cases

Monmouthshire - 18 cases

Caerphilly 2

Rhondda Cynon Taff - 1

Neath Port Talbot -1

Newport - 3

The scheme means that farmers with small numbers of animals will only have to take them as far as the market - which will then transport them in bigger numbers to slaughter houses.

David Morgan and his family farm near Cresselly in Pembrokeshire.

Since the foot-and-mouth restrictions on animal movement were introduced and livestock markets cancelled, they have had to transport small numbers of animals many miles to abattoirs.

He said: "We've had to do a 100 mile round trip to the abattoir.

Huw Evans is confident the system will work

"Well this will only take us about 40 so it should be a great advantage to us."

The Livestock Director at Carmarthen Cattle Market, Huw Evans believes that from a welfare perspective it will be very beneficial for small farmers.

"One producer has told me that he queued outside an abattoir for eight hours last week in order to take his animals in," he said

"There were 50 vehicles there taking 400 lambs in, where as with this system there will be one vehicle taking those 400 lambs there."

Farmers across Wales have been trying to come up with systems which allow them to trade without increasing the risk of spreading foot-and-mouth.

Video auctions

Earlier this week, farmers were offered a novel new way of trading - by taking part in video auctions.

The system - being piloted in Llandovery, west Wales - allows those farmers unable to attend conventional stock auctions to buy animals they see on screen.

The move is an important step forward in allaying farmers' fears over finding livestock in the wake of the slaughter of tens of thousands of animals in Wales.

System extended

Auctioneers have spent the last few weeks videoing cattle at 46 farms and they now hope to sell them during a screening at Llandovery Rugby Club next week.

Livestock markets were last held in the area more than three months ago and there has been little sign of them being reinstated.

Auctioneers Clee, Tompkinson and Francis came up with the idea of creating a video catalogue of more than 500 cattle, cows, calves and bulls.

It is the first occasion such a system has been used in Wales and, if it proves popular, it could be extended to other areas.