‘Mart€xpress – ICBF pilots’ latest addition to the HerdPlus app’

At ICBF we are excited to announce our latest pilot project: ‘Mart€xpress’. The new mart trading feature, available on the HerdPlus App, aims to streamline the buying and selling of animals through the ICOS mart network. The new service is currently being rolled out as a pilot venture in conjunction with Cork Co-operative Marts.

Mart€xpress has been made available to a select group of herds participating in the pilot phase. The initial version of the app is limited to calves from the dairy herd i.e. dairy sired males, beef sired males and beef sired females. Given the time of year, with large numbers of dairy calves still to be traded, priority is being given to the sale of calves from the dairy herd. However, it is envisaged that other categories of animals e.g. weanlings, store cattle and breeding stock etc. will be included in future versions of the service.

Figure 1: Mart€xpress main menu

How the service operates?

Participating pilot herds can access ‘Mart€xpress’ through the HerdPlus app. Herds are able to select the mart they wish to market their animals with, before proceeding to nominate those they wish to enter for sale. The herd’s selected mart will receive the sale entries and contact the herd directly to discuss a date and time for delivery to the mart, if a potential sale will be made. The mart will then facilitate the sales transaction between the buyer and seller of the animals.

To date, just over 1,200 calves have been traded through the ‘Mart€xpress’ Pilot project. As the pilot progresses, we continue to evolve and streamline the service that we are offering. We look forward to making this feature widely available to our HerdPlus members in the future.

Figure 2: Sale selection screen