Opinion: Online auction of ‘blue-bloods’ marks the future

As regular readers of this column know, I pride myself on being at the cutting edge of my profession.

Imagine, then, my excitement at the opportunity to enter some of my pedigree cattle into the first ever “online timed cattle auction” to be held by my local firm of livestock auctioneers, South East Marts, in conjunction with The Sussex Cattle Society.

I’ve owned a herd of pedigree Sussex cattle for over a decade but, as we’ve gradually built it up to 100 breeding cows, I’ve never had any bulling heifers to sell until now.

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About the author

Stephen Carr

Farmers Weekly Opinion writer

Stephen Carr runs an 800ha beef, sheep and arable farm on the South Downs near Eastbourne in Sussex in partnership with his wife and four of his daughters. He also runs a nearby pub with his nephew, The Sussex Ox, which serves the farm’s beef, lamb, (and fruit and vegetables from the farmhouse kitchen-garden in season) through its restaurant.

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We selected some of our best pedigree two-year-old heifers to be entered into the online sale catalogue.

The auctioneer who came to photograph them suggested that, rather than film them in the yard, it might be better to run them out into a nearby small, grassy paddock.   

As anyone who has ever worked with this breed will know, Sussex cattle are no ordinary strain of bovine.

They have about them a haughty, regal air, and an unshakably calm temperament.  

So it was that these blue bloods, let loose into a field after six months in a yard, remained ice cool in front of the cameras.

No galloping about with wild abandon like some of the lesser breeds.

Instead, they instinctively presented their best profile to the paparazzi who eagerly snapped their images for the adoring mass of cattle breeders waiting to bid online.  

For those of you unfamiliar with a timed online livestock auction, let me explain that there is no auctioneer.

Instead, there is a photo and a video of a lot, and an invitation to bid for it online over a two-day period.

At the end of the second day, the auction concludes as each lot ticks down to a deadline.

If there is a bid within the last minute before the deadline, the clock resets and starts to tick down for a further 60 seconds. 

So, at 7pm on a Saturday evening, my family and I gathered round our various laptops in our different locations to watch the bidding drama unfold.

Our maiden heifers made up the last 12 lots in the catalogue.

I was extremely excited about what might happen, as there had been a series of promising bids over the preceding two days.

But, as the clock ticked down, the end of each sale became something of an anticlimax as not a single further bid was received for any of our heifers.

That said, all 12 of them were sold, and we did achieve the top price for a maiden heifer during the auction.

The timed online auction was deemed successful by both the Sussex Cattle Society and South East Marts.

It appears that it must be the way ahead for pedigree livestock, given how important health status is nowadays for breeders, particularly of bulls and rams.

For me, it also allows us to offer our organic cattle for sale without them losing their organic status.

On top of that, what could be more entertaining than the thought of my daughter, a partner in the farm, keeping a watchful eye on the sale of “Lot 50: Oxendean Georgina 9th” by taking a few minutes’ break from her friend’s wedding celebrations in Belize?