How online trade has transformed dairy sales
© Tim Scrivener Online selling has taken what were once local or regional livestock sales and given them a global audience, with particular success seen in the dairy sector.
Online auction platform MartEye says that dairy is its fastest-growing sector in the UK, and with 46 UK auction sites already on board, the platform is growing at a rate of two to three markets there each month.
“In dairy, specifically, over the past 12 months in the UK, MartEye saw 261 dairy sales. This was £31m in trade,” says Jamie Nolan, MartEye’s head of sales.
See also: Getting into dairy farming: Options for new entrants
Dairy is also an area of attention for online trading system SellMyLivestock, which gets more than 1.3m page views on its site a month.
Based on value, dairy currently makes up 13% of the site’s trade, but it is a focus area for expansion, working with markets and breed societies.
Currently, there are two commonly used ways that livestock can be bought online:
- Websites and apps, which allow you to list your on-farm stock, allowing buyers to search for the stock they are after, and then contact the vendor to go and view, or purchase online
- Websites and apps that facilitate bidding online on livestock, embryos and semen in real-time while an auction is livestreamed.
Dairy benefits
Mark Davis, director at Kivells, was an early adopter of online bidding technology, and Exeter Livestock Centre sees as much as 50% sold online at some sales, with others closer to 15-20%.
“It opens you up to a massive audience – thousands of people watch the sale. Whether you’ve got 10 animals in a sale or 300, you know you’ve got people there, and that’s been a real game changer,” he says.
With hauliers travelling all over the UK, he says it is easy to buy from afar and organise transport back to the farm.
“I think dairy is benefiting more than any other sector – with breeding sheep sales and specialist beef sales, people tend to go to the sales rather than buy online. I think so much of what people are buying with dairy is in a catalogue.
“If people are interested, they can find out a bit more ahead of the sale and generally then they’re happy to buy online.”
Mr Nolan says that while many choose to see stock before buying, MartEye often sees “buying blind” with dairy production sales, where farmers might be repeat customers of the same herd.
“We find, over time, farmers start exploring and purchasing from places further afield.”
Mr Nolan says a more subtle benefit of the live-streamed sales is how much more educated on price vendors have become. Many people tune in just to keep an eye on the trade.
Vendor and buyer benefits
- Reach An increased audience of buyers, both in number and geographical spread, can increase demand and subsequently lift prices for vendors
- Access Viewing stock or a live sale online can give buyers access to a much wider pool of stock and genetics for sale, that they might otherwise not be able to find or purchase
- Flexibility Online bidding can allow buyers who would usually attend a market the flexibility to buy from a tractor seat or elsewhere when needed
- Cost saving Direct trade between farms can avoid the costs of market commission and haulage, leaving more of the sale price as profit
Trust and transparency
Jonny Dymond, senior auctioneer and manager at Shrewsbury Auction Centre, set up online bidding for the market’s weekly dairy sale more than a year ago. He believes it is a safe and effective way to trade.
“We have done our due diligence on all 1,700 bidders registered with us to ensure they are genuine.
“And, with some of those registered, we can provide them with videos of stock before a sale if we know what sort of thing they’re looking for,” he says.
Hampshire beef finisher and co-founder of SellMyLivestock Dan Luff says it is important that farmers are using reputable sites for online trade, so that terms and conditions are in place in case of any issues.
He also believes it is important to view stock before buying, especially with dairy cows, to ensure the system they are coming from will fit with your own. His other top tips for selling direct from the farm online are:
- Be careful – there are large sums of money changing hands, so trade safely
- Provide as much information as possible on a listing – this helps potential buyers avoid wasted journeys, but also saves time fielding calls with questions if all information is already on the site
- Ensure payment has been received before any stock leave the farm
- Use plenty of good-quality photos to market stock. And, if internet allows, upload videos as well.
Does online trade take away from livestock markets?
SellMyLivestock predominantly specialises in farm-to-farm sales, although it has been facilitating online bidding on live-streamed sales more recently.
“I’m not going to say you should use us instead of markets – we want to work with markets and breed societies,” says co-founder Dan Luff.
“But it is another tool in your armoury, and I think it is important to have two or three outlets for marketing your stock at a particular moment in time.”
Jamie Nolan of MartEye says: “The market is the be all and end all – everything we do is for the market and through the market.”
Particularly with the distance between farms and markets, however, he thinks online bidding has an important role.
Is bidding in advance the next step?
At Shrewsbury, all online bidding takes place in real-time, but Mr Dymond is interested in expanding the online offering with the option of also using a maximum bid system.
This would function more like the bidding system commonly used on eBay.
He thinks it will allow potential buyers to log in at a convenient time, ahead of the sale, rather than being time-restricted.
“A good example would be with rugby referee Nigel Owens. He was in the dressing room for the premiership rugby final bidding on MartEye to buy a Hereford from us.
“It probably would have been beneficial to him to be able to put a maximum bid in, rather than bidding live two minutes before he went out on the pitch,” he says.
Herd dispersal online success story
The dispersal of the Withyland Holstein herd saw 48% of the herd knocked down to online bidders, to average £1,690 a life across 390-head.
Tim Cracknell, partner in the farming business at Withymoor Farm, Gloucestershire, said that online bidding made a huge difference to prices at the sale, run by Norton and Brooksbank using MartEye technology.
He suspects the percentage of youngstock sold online exceeded 50%.
“We had a red calf, the only red in the sale, almost knocked down for 1,600gns.
“The calf actually left the ring because we thought bidding was done, but then two bidders online, from Ireland and Cornwall, kept bidding, and it made 4,000gns,” Mr Cracknell says.
In the main, he thinks people bidding online for top-end cattle had either seen the stock themselves prior to the sale or had a “trusted friend” who had seen them.
But he said there was also some online purchasing, where the only viewing of stock was via the live auction webcam.
Mr Cracknell also used social media to promote the dispersal sale in advance. He set up a Facebook page at the end of 2021, knowing they were likely to disperse in 2022 or 2023.
He made a series of online videos talking about the herd and explaining the breeding of the cow families within it.
“That had significant engagement – we definitely had loads of messages and people come to the sale off the back of that,” he says.