“With no saleyard operation we had to find new ways of moving livestock so we said ‘let’s keep it on the farm’,” Peter Walsh said.
With a smart back office team and the latest technology the independent livestock broker came up with Livebid.
“We compared to other online livestock selling platforms and we do use them too but we wanted to get a design that’s more interactive with the public.
“We came up with live commentary videos with more options in the bidding system to bring a more people feel presentation to the action at sale time.”
The Livebid site has live commentary videos and photos of the stock while also individually profiling the respective vendor details complemented with a chat button to discuss further stock information.
Walsh said it’s been about recognising a new opportunity and having the confidence to give it a go.
“It’s been quite amazing what our smart young people have been able to do in two weeks to get to this stage of being online with what normally would have been yarded saleyard auctions.
“Farmers have taken up on the idea very quickly. They are willing to give it a go too.”
More than 220 weaned beef calves and 80 Hereford-Angus R2 heifers from five South Canterbury farms were posted online 48 hours ahead of the first auction last Friday.
It attracted 8500 views with 310 registrations for the livestreamed auction.
“We are all very pleased with how our first Livebid panned out.”
All but one line of in-calf heifers sold through the auction at prices that pleased vendors.
Angus-Hereford steers sold from $2.70-$2.95/kg LW while Angus steers ranged from $2.90-$3.15, Angus heifers $2.85-$2.90 with Shorthorn steers selling at $2.70.
“Did it meet expectation – well we have never done it before so we didn’t really have an expectation but we are very pleased with our first.
“It was probably just the timing for the in-calf heifers being a month or so earlier than usual for these cattle,” Walsh said.
He says the site us more user-friendly with more options for buyers than other sites.
“We wanted to bring a people presentation to the action at sale time.
“This is one good thing to come out of covid-19.
“I’m not saying this is the be-all and end-all but an opportunity to give it a go and in time it may well be the way of the future.
“The younger generation are certainly more open-minde and they are the future.”
The annual production sale of Shenley Station will be the next up for Livebid offering 700 Angus-Pure steer calves and heifers on Thursday, April 23.
The cattle will be delivered via the Temuka saleyards.
“Given the logistics of sorting, weighing and delivering 700 cattle we have been able to yard them at Temuka and with a minimal number of people get them sorted, weighed and catalogued then sold via Livebid and delivered ex the Temuka saleyards,” Walsh said.
Vendor Rit Fisher said having been through the bad times managing challenging seasonal weather and juggling a feed shortage he thought nothing worse could happen.
