Effin mart

[Henarar]

go and watch them sold
amazing how many farmers have time to lamb them, feed them, fence them, finish them and all the other things that are done during a year but no time to see them sold

If you really can't get there to see them sold as you work elsewhere then put a reserve on them

its no good to moan about the price after

 

[Still Farming]

Maybe some auctioneers need reminding that they are supposed to be working for the vendors? If you need to stand and watch them (which could be 6+ hours in our local mart, and many other decent sized ones) to save having them knocked down at knacker value, then they deserve to lose custom imo.

We were'nt there.
Don't Know vendor, or animals conditions?
Or trading relations???
Lots of unknown possibilities???

 

[neilo]

I took some cull ewes in on Monday (which I left there, having sorted). In the next pen were some Welsh ewes with their wool falling out in handfuls. I really wouldn't have wanted to bring them home, complete with whatever they were crawling with.

Everything here is also mv accredited, so once it gets to a mart sale, it can't come home without isolation for 6 months and double testing. One way trips only. If I think the mart, that I am paying, aren't working for me, I will take them elsewhere, as the OP will be.

 

[Willie adie]

An auction mart always "finds a victim" be it buyer or seller.
I know of several occasions when a seller didnt stay and the lot was chapped out quick. Same with leaving a bid.
Now that is asking to be shafted.
The whole profession is in need of root and branch review.

 

[mixed breed]

We're quite fortunate here, the girl who books the culls in at our mart is a great help, she knows the job and will pen sepperatly a pair of goods uns or at least mark anything sepperatly, to make it a fair sale, to be honest she deserves all of the commission we pay.

 

[Kiwi Pete]

A good auctioneer worth his salt, would have split them in the ring/pen, if they weren't already marked up differently
Pee takers!

Too right, that's very poor indeed.

Who do they work for, again????

 

[Still Farming]

I took some cull ewes in on Monday (which I left there, having sorted). In the next pen were some Welsh ewes with their wool falling out in handfuls. I really wouldn't have wanted to bring them home, complete with whatever they were crawling with.

Everything here is also mv accredited, so once it gets to a mart sale, it can't come home without isolation for 6 months and double testing. One way trips only. If I think the mart, that I am paying, aren't working for me, I will take them elsewhere, as the OP will be.

Where was the Market inspector,Animal Health or Trading standards officers then to check animals and designated pen areas for suspect animals/concerns?

 

[Goweresque]

An auction mart always "finds a victim" be it buyer or seller.
I know of several occasions when a seller didnt stay and the lot was chapped out quick. Same with leaving a bid.
Now that is asking to be shafted.
The whole profession is in need of root and branch review.

The idea that auctioneering is a profession is charmingly naive. Its just a bunch of estate agents who happen to have passed a couple of exams, with morals to match.

 

[Woolless]

@TripleSix sounds like you are well advised to look elsewhere for sheep marketing options! I have been on the receiving end of this type of thing before, not nice to think of others taking all the profit for your work. I only sell stock at the mart when I can be there now

Is there another mart nearby? Phone the auctioneer, explain you can't stay to see sheep sold, what is the best way to organise putting a reserve on them, organising in to lots etc?

Is there a dealer in the area that could buy your culls off the farm? You won't get top dollar but you won't get a shafting like that either.

 

[yellowbelly]

Its just a bunch of estate agents who happen to have passed a couple of exams, with morals to match.

Not sure if they even need to have any qualifications at all

 

[CharcoalWally]

@TripleSix

Is there a dealer in the area that could buy your culls off the farm? You won't get top dollar but you won't get a shafting like that either.

Seriously?

 

[Woolless]

Seriously?

Why not? I would imagine he would be able to get more than £1 and no commission?

I sold 50 ewes to a dealer a couple of years ago and wasn't that satisfied, but to be honest the overall return was on a par with the following years culls that went through the mart and much less time spent and no haulage.

 

[TripleSix]

go and watch them sold
amazing how many farmers have time to lamb them, feed them, fence them, finish them and all the other things that are done during a year but no time to see them sold

If you really can't get there to see them sold as you work elsewhere then put a reserve on them

its no good to moan about the price after

It was a red day so I couldn't have taken them home anyway?

 

[CharcoalWally]

Why not? I would imagine he would be able to get more than £1 and no commission?

I sold 50 ewes to a dealer a couple of years ago and wasn't that satisfied, but to be honest the overall return was on a par with the following years culls that went through the mart and much less time spent and no haulage.

Why not?

Because this is a ludicrously extreme example which will hopefully shine a public light on a, shall we say, underperforming company who need to have a very public shaming on a social media avenue to show them that this behaviour is not acceptable, and that farmers aren't going to stand for it.

It doesn't however change the fact that the farmer - dealer relationship is generally slanted heavily in favour of the dealer.

 

[Henarar]

It was a red day so I couldn't have taken them home anyway?

that's the trouble with red markets its in their hands, that said I dare say things would have been different had you been there

 

[Northeastfarmer]

@TripleSix take them to Darlington next time

 

[Northeastfarmer]

go and watch them sold
amazing how many farmers have time to lamb them, feed them, fence them, finish them and all the other things that are done during a year but no time to see them sold

If you really can't get there to see them sold as you work elsewhere then put a reserve on them

its no good to moan about the price after

Too bloody true

 

[Paddington]

Were they sold as the last lot when many buyers may have left ?
When we have sold lambs, they have been put in the first few lots, not being commercial sheep and the auction hasn't warmed up..
That's our excuse for poor prices.

 

[kiwi pom]

Thinking out loud here, surely there's a better way than markets these days to buy and sell stuff. Seems a funny way to do it to me all that time and money put into something and you just take a chance someone will give you enough for them on the day and that's before all the dodgy stuff that goes on at them.
Inefficient with transport too, loading and unloading twice, everyone's stock fetched to the same building then transported to all corners of the country, cant be good for welfare or biosecurity?

Don't know what the alternative is, it just seems an old fashioned way of doing it.

 

[Woolless]

Why not?

Because this is a ludicrously extreme example which will hopefully shine a public light on a, shall we say, underperforming company who need to have a very public shaming on a social media avenue to show them that this behaviour is not acceptable, and that farmers aren't going to stand for it.

It doesn't however change the fact that the farmer - dealer relationship is generally slanted heavily in favour of the dealer.

I can't argue with any of that. However, in the OP's situation a dealer is a way around selling at the mart when you can't afford the time to be there. If you don't like what he offers, you don't need to sell. Why you need to be there when you're paying the auctioneer to work on your behalf of course....