Co-operative buyout Forfar auction market's last chance

A Co-operative buyout is Forfar Market users’ only hope of being able to continue trading at the site.

Speaking to Farmers Guardian on Wednesday (April 12) at the market’s first weekly sale since the closure was announced, the overwhelming emotion was one of sadness.

Vendors and buyers are clearly not looking forward to a future without a local market.

Graeme Mather, of Shandford, Brechin, said the family partnership sells 95 per cent of its cattle and sheep through the market, amounting to more than 300 prime cattle and 2,000 prime sheep.

He said: “My biggest fear is that that those with fewer than 200 ewes or finishing 30 or 40 cattle will stop keeping stock altogether. We use tractor towed livestock trailers and we can be here in 25 minutes. Our carbon footprint will soar if we have to go elsewhere.

“I also worry that if a local market is not available we will be left at the mercy of the supermarkets. I think a co-operative buyout here might be the way forward. It is certainly worth exploring.”

David Peters, of West Bog, Kirriemuir, was uncertain if enough farmers would be willing to invest.

He consigns top quality cattle to Forfar 52 weeks a year and often tops the markets.

“I am not sure what I will do but I will probably keep fewer cattle. There are not so many butchers now and that is part of the problem.”

Drew Wilson, who, with his wife Margaret, finishes a large number of a cattle at Greenhead, near Forfar, said: “During the year we buy around 300 stores here. If we buy them from further afield it will put £15 to £20 on the transport cost. 

Dundee butcher George Jarron buys at Forfar every week for his family’s three Scott Brothers shops.

“We want to support local farmers and but 15 to 20 sheep and a few cattle every week as well as buying direct.

We would support a co-operative if one was set up. A few years ago we were behind proposal to build an abattoir next to the market but for a number of reasons it did not go ahead.”