Saleyards moving to online bidding
Buyers, no matter where they are, will soon be able to bid online for stock auctioned at Temuka Saleyards.
Temuka Saleyards Co-op and Tessco, Temuka Saleyards’ selling companies, plan to run a full livestreaming and online bidding system to run in conjunction with its existing weekly Monday prime cattle sales plus all store cattle sales by the end of July.
‘‘It will be a hybrid,’’ Temuka Saleyards livestreaming committee chairman Bruce McDougall said.
‘‘The auctioneer will still be doing it the traditional way in the arena at the saleyards. A computer operator will be standing next to the auctioneer.
‘‘As the bids come in on screen the operator will call the bids, like a bid spotter.’’
McDougall said the new system was an add-on to the traditional auction.
‘‘It won’t detract from the human element. It’s just another tool in the toolbox.
‘‘We’ve a number of bidders who come from the North Island every week. They won’t need to travel. It opens a greater buying bench.’’
McDougall said online bidders would be supplied with enough information to bid with confidence.
‘‘The cattle will still be weighed and their origins given and with the cameras, bidders will be able to view them coming into the ring.
‘‘We envisage that once buyers become confident and familiar with the system that many will choose to bid from the comfort of the farm office.’’
McDougall said they had built flexibility into the system.
‘‘Once we have the cattle sales functioning well, we can extend the digital offering out to the sheep yards as well.
‘‘Beyond that, we also have the capability for the system to travel outside the saleyards complex and be used for off-site sales such as farm clearing sales.’’
McDougall said the saleyards were closed for six weeks during the Covid alert level 4 lockdown last year, at a time when the highest volumes of cattle trading occurred.
‘‘The autumn period is traditionally our busiest time for cattle trading, with weaner beef calf sales and cull cows arriving in big numbers.
‘‘This period of closure severely impacted the businesses of all players in the livestock supply chain and effectively removed the live auction selling system as a barometer of values from the marketplace.’’
The lockdown provided an impetus to develop livestreaming and online bidding.
Temuka Saleyards and Tessco chose a global auction technology company based in the United States, Xcira, as its online bidding service provider.
The system would be managed by Tessco staff at Temuka with a 24-hour online monitoring and backup service provided by Xcira.
The new system was expected to be fully operational by the end of July.
The Temuka saleyards are the largest in the South Island.