Cattle sales could be held on Sundays in the future to facilitate the major changes which are taking place in Irish farming, writes Seán MacConnell, Agriculture Correspondent
Traditionally, marts were held on weekdays with sales beginning at 9 or 10am and continuing all day.
With the changes in farming, many sales are now being held in the evenings and on Saturdays to facilitate the number of part-time farmers who also have jobs.
This allows those farmers, many of whom produce beef cattle, to attend the marts and to continue working outside their farms as well.
Tom Doyle, chairman of the Irish Marts Co-operative Movement, said that evening sales and Saturday sales had been extremely successful.
"They facilitate lads who are farming and also have an off-farm job, but would be badly penalised if they had to take a day off to go to the mart," he said.
"It has been particularly successful in the west of Ireland, where there are larger numbers of lads working off the land," Mr Doyle continued.
"But even here in Enniscorthy [ Co Wexford] at our own mart we have held very successful evening sales for weanlings and the farmers appreciate it."
He said that all options, perhaps even holding sales at certain times of the year on Sundays, had been looked at but as of now there did not seem to be any demand for it.
However, that could change.
The dramatic changes at farm level have led some churches, too, in rural areas to change Mass times to accommodate mart sales.
In parts of the west some churches have moved the Saturday evening Mass time to 9pm, to enable farmers attend to both the commercial and spiritual aspects of their lives.
The growth in part-time farming is also reflected in what is the bible of Irish farming, the Irish Farmers Journal.
One of its most successful features over the past 18 months has been a weekly competition for labour-saving devices on the farm.
Prompted by a shortage in labour and the growth in part-time farming, its readers are challenged weekly to enter a competition to produce labour-saving devices or systems.
It has been one of the most successful competitions held since the publication was established, according to the Journal.