Livewire auctioneer is sold on his job
Cam Heggie is a character, full of humour, but takes his job seriously, Kem Ormond writes.
Honest, hardworking, down-to-earth people who have a passion for the land and their animals. — Cam Heggie, on the people he meets in his job
When I decided to profile an auctioneer, I googled a few. I had just watched a programme on Australian high-country cattleman and there was Cam Heggie, in an oilskin coat and hat, bushy moustache with a photo of Doc Holliday,Wyatt Earp and his brothers on his work Facebook page.
I thought, this will have to be an interesting auctioneer with a sense of humour — and I wasn’t wrong.
An ex-Palmerston North High School boy, he met a lot of the boarders who came from places like Taihape and Hunterville and thought they were a great bunch of guys. He decided he would like to work with such types and, after finishing high school, went off for a short stint as a farm cadet . . . . but decided that he wasn’t cut out to be a farmer.
In 1986, he moved to Dalgety Crown to set off on his pathway into the rural sector. Come 2010, that experience made him readily accept the position at PGG Wrightson, as a livestock genetics representative and auctioneer for the northern North Island. A job tailormade for a character like Heggie, who appreciates livestock and enjoys people and travel.
His job is not to just turn up on the day to sell the livestock for the best price possible, it is to become a part of each client’s business, guiding them through their breeding programmes, advising on and helping source the bulls and rams that farmers rely on. It is this part of the job that Heggie finds extremely enjoyable and takes extremely seriously.
There is also a lot of satisfaction of being part of a small, tight-knit genetics team of about eight, scattered throughout the country, with a great culture that Heggie enjoys being part of.
Challenges Heggie has comes across are the continuing change of land use and the declining numbers of breeding cows and ewes. This is where building strong relationships with farmers becomes increasingly important.
Reduced numbers mean some buyers have to travel up from further away, so making sure their trip is worthwhile is always on the auctioneer’s mind.
Being an auctioneer is a big responsibility because, if the sale goes well, he has contributed to that farmer’s income for the year. The auctioneer has to know what he is selling, understand his client and understand the buyers and how to move in their interest.
The biggest changes that Heggie has seen over the past years has been in technology, both as far as breeding cattle with DNA genomics and the like and also the introduction of Bidr on PGG’s online selling platform, which has been integrated into the whole auction system.
A highlight of Heggie’s career was selling a NZ-record bull for $104,000 in 2020 at an on-farm sale for Tuiriroa Stud in Wairoa.
Another highlight is the people he meets: “Honest, hardworking, downto-earth people who have a passion for the land and their animals.”
The job has also given him the chance to travel the North and South Islands and see scenery and sights that many will never get the opportunity to see.
And when Heggie is not auctioneering, he can be found on his small block in Waikato with his wife Sara, busy planting native trees or making stock and hiking sticks. He is also is a dab hand at passing the tray of sandwiches when he helps Sara out with her catering business.