Mart Auctioneer Pay

Not being smart here but why don’t you take it up with the mart manager yourself and tell him your not happy about his carry on and tell him to go back and look at it online the sale of the heifer and how he’s acting and ask him who was the buyer and would he like this to get out around the local area. Fella gets a name for that sort of thing hard to get away from it, a couple of years ago in the mart canteen the owner was having his lunch and the second auctioneer was selling in come two farmers to him and in front of everybody to hear that if he didn’t go back to sell their cattle they would be let straight out through the ring and they would be in another mart the next week and all their relatives wouldn’t sell in his mart again. He got up from the table and back up and sold their cattle and to this day he sells their cattle not any other auctioneer.

How would the buyer know? There is no indication of whether a seller is present or not until the sale is finished (in the marts we sell on anyway). I also wouldn’t say on average there is any difference in prices we have gotten selling subject vs being there.

We find it very handy now to be honest we drop off stock in the morning and often just follow online at home while getting other work done rather than wasting the best part of the day hanging around the mart - sometimes we do come back for the sale but less than half the time I reckon. Also give you time to think about the price as another poster mentioned.

Always get the call fairly fast also (10 mins or so after sale) so I don’t think buyers are left hanging.

You were being puffed by the auctioneer. There was no other bidder.

I think a lot of lads overthink the importance of being in the mart both as a buyer and a seller.

The experienced lads bidding around the ring know the price they will go to and it’s immaterial whether the buyer is in the box or not, they go to their figure and that’s it. A lot of them wouldn’t even turn their head to see who’s bidding against them especially since the online marts started.

It’s the time of year, amount of animals in the mart and factory price that drives the mart trade on. In October when weanling sales are big there will be a bit of messing going on with dealers around the ring but the seller being in the box makes no difference to any of that, it’ll happen either way.

Trying to give the auctioneer all the information on an animal to call out in a standard sale often results in a lower price for the animal. The regular lads bidding there every week get annoyed at the farmer holding up the flow to get his bit of information called out about when he vaccinated them and how many stars they have and how many times a day he talks to them and they don’t bother bidding on the stock then out of spite.

An auctioneer can tacke a bid "off the wall" ie he can bluff the cattle up, most auctioneers do it to speed up the sale of cattle, it is not illegal, and imho its fine as the auctioneer is working for the seller not the buyer. My gripe is when the auctioneer startas working for his buddies, like knocking down cattle to them. The marts charge more than enough to sell the cattle, so it's not too much to ask to get a bit of service from them.

I watched some online autions over in the US, and while that place can be very extreme like in those car sales autions where they have bid spotters, in most cattle marts they have a timer on the sales to ensure cattle get a fair chance in the ring. If you watch some of the sales here you'll see some cattle get less than a minute of sale time. Whats worse is in Ennis mart you see dealers cattle being re-entered 2 and 3 times skipping the queue. I've no objection to them trying them again but let all other pens go through first. Its fair anoying to be in a big sale with a lot no drawn towards the end to see this carry on

But it was knocked down to that possibly 20000 bid lesser. Bad form all round

i am told it’s illegal for an auctioneer to take fake bids

So in your humble opinion its OK for an auctioneer to puff the price as its an advantage to you, but as a buyer I think its unfair on buyer. It usually happens where an auctioneer has an unknowledgeable buyer. As a buyer I pay auctioneer fees as well so the auctioneer is beholden to both sides. There are marts where I are disinclined to spend too much time trying to buy a few cattle as the auctioneer will spend too long searching for another bid.

Marts have significant staff costs. All are now paid by the hour. They have to get through numbers to make a profit. Even a small mart will have two in the auctioneer stand, one in the ring, 3-4 minimum in the yard and 2-3 in the office as well as the mart manager. That is 10-12 minimum.

Even at the minimum wage, allowing for holiday, bank holidays pay and employer PRSI. That's a minimum cost of 160-200/ hour. Staff will need to be paid for 6 hours minimum per day or they will not stay there. That is 1600 to over 2K/ day before you allow for insurance, electricity, water and fixed costs. At fees of 10/head for buyer and seller it will take the first 80-100+ cattle sold to cover costs. However a good auctioneer will probably be on a 200+/ day and the Mart manager will be on a full-time wage as well as one of the back office staff.

The day that less than 150 cattle are sold the mart is running at a loss.

As I always point out there is only really a margin for one person on any animal. Someone has to lose its unlikely to be the lad nearer the final money.

I think if it's the lad I am.thinking about he is relatively fair to both sides. He gets through numbers fairly fast its often a case of good cop, bad cop with auctioneers.

There is limited market for singles. If I get 3-4 in tge box I am picking up singles if they are value. However single cattle carry a risk in that farmers will put cattle that there are issues with in as a single. If cattle are of a similar age a 270kg V a 350k animal can mean an animal with an issue. It may just be a genetically poorer animal.

As well the 350K cattle can probably be slaughtered off grassbefore winter or will be finished earlier in the winter compared to the 270kg animal.

When the auctioneer makes up bids and are left with the animals they just call up their dealer friends who must buy these expensive animals. They’re rewarded by the hammer falling faster for them for the next few weeks. It’s how it done, not always great for the seller

Decent auctioneer in kk was failing to open an offer on an animal. So he made it plain and clear it was his perogative to open at a decent bid and he did...animal sold at decent price afterwards. Morale of story that's the only time they can take a 'fake bid.

I was wondering why a dodgy dealer from up my end goes to Ennis regularly.

Talk about a nothing post, have you been a beneficiary of such sharp practices by any chance?

I buy virtually all my cattle online. However you have to under stand the way a mart works, it cannot spend 2-3 minutes on every lot

Isn’t it the same story though for every animal sold in every mart in the country?

The seller thinks the auctioneer is after knocking down the animal to one of his dealer friends far too cheap and the buyer thinks the auctioneer must have been taking phantom bids because there’s no way the animal should have been so dear.

I honestly think that the auctioneer should be more on the side of the seller. Ideally you would think that he should be equally fair to both buyer and seller, but in practice it is fairer if he tries his best to get every last bid. Buyers battle away then till the last man is standing.

Once famers get a sniff that there is something dodgy with an auctioneer, they simple go elsewhere to sell.

Auctioneers should keep their distance from the dealers too. I suppose it is inevitable that will get to know them as they deal with them everyday, but to the farmers around the ring, it looks very suspicious if they are having banter with them during the sale.

It's alive and well... If you are a regular mart goer it can be glaring obvious depending on the mart and or the auctioneer.

I think you know very little about selling stock

I tell the auctioneer the reserve of the cattle/sheep , if they don't make it they're loaded and go home, it's the auctioneers job to make a sale, & reach my reserve by the means available to them. if they make more well and good . But no way am I going to drop a bundle of cattle under their value if there's only 1 bidder. If they fall short I don't waste the marts time by tangling, tell the auctioneer to move on or if last lot I exit the seller's box immediately. I sell a lot of stock ex the yard to long time repeat customers and the deal is usually made in a few minutes

says the man

Could ye keep Xxxxx above in Carnaross, never thought much of him in gort.