Friday, 13 November 2020 10:14

Record audience at bull sale

Written by  Staff Reporters
Dave Mackenzie says farmers were able to bid online. Dave Mackenzie says farmers were able to bid online.

A record number of farmers took part in the largest service bull sale in New Zealand – many from the comfort of their own homes.

This year’s Huntly bull sale marked 14 years since friends Dave MacKenzie and Greg Straker combined forces to provide farmers with access to quality grade beef and dairy bulls.

MacKenzie recalls that the sale quickly became renowned for bulls which were well grown and provided the breed diversity dairy farmers were after.

“Until this year the NZ Farmers Livestock auction has meant that bidders needed to be ringside – but this year farmers were able to register to bid online via our hybrid auction platform which enables ring-side and online bidding.”

NZ Farmers Livestock general manager Bill Sweeney said the sale was very successful “with return buyers and around 100 registered buyers. Around 440 2yr bulls in outstanding condition and with excellent temperament went under the hammer”. 

“The top Herefords realised up to $2,800 with an average of $2,400 while the average for Angus and Jersey was $2,300 and $1,950 respectively – up slightly on the prices achieved last year. Buyers were from as far away as Otago and Whangarei,” Bill Sweeney said.

More like this

Farmers embrace online bidding

When the door slammed shut on New Zealand in March 2020 it also closed the gate to one of the viability fundamentals of the country’s livestock industry – stock auctions.

Buzz building around sale - organiser

The energy building among the industry's young people in the lead-up to the autumn harvest sale has already proven to sale organisers that they did the right thing by instigating it.

Featured

National

DairyNZ Farmers Forum underway

Over 300 farmers and rural professionals have gathered in Hamilton for the first DairyNZ Farmers Forum for this year.

Machinery & Products

Shearing legend hooked on CanAm

Sir David Fagan, world-renowned competitive sheep shearer with 642 shearing titles worldwide and a knighthood to his name, now runs…

50 years of tractor pull

This year, the Fieldays Tractor Pull, in association with PTS Logistics, mark a major milestone – 50 years of crowd-thrilling…

The Wrangler's birthday bash

It's the Wrangler Limited’s 30th birthday and to celebrate the milestone a prototype of the E Series Wrangler - a…

» Latest Print Issues Online

Milking It

Free speech

OPINION: The Free Speech Union is taking this one too far.

Drug survey

OPINION: New national data from The Drug Detection Agency (TDDA), a leading workplace drug tester, shows methamphetamine (meth) use is…

» Connect with Dairy News

» eNewsletter

Subscribe to our weekly newsletter