A couple of questions about auctions in other areas

[jasonleonard]

I had a discussion with a CT member about auctioneers "setting cattle in" at auctions. This set "in" price.....the auctioneer must have a go- to buyer (ie. the barn itself) for this to work?
The cattle are not set in solid around here, you have to have the ear to tell if someone is "on" or not, because the auctioneer will back down if he doesn't get anyone hooked.
Around here it is very rare to announce who owns the cattle...sometimes they will say what county they are out of.
Do they announce owner at sales in other areas?

 

[inyati13]

At the elite sales they do. I notice the big guys like Boyd and Phillips get mention and I guess they should. Their cattle have national reputations.

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

Inyati, you'd get a real kick hearing the auctioneer talking up my mother in law's cattle at the Owenton sale. We're far from big time but she does have a great reputation for selling well conditioned and fully vaccinated calves over the years.

Of course slipping him the occasional U of L hoops tickets doesn't hurt either. ;-)

 

[bigbull338]

most all auctioneers will back off of their starting bid unless they set them in to where people will bid on them.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

Depends on if your known by the Salebarn on wether or not your name is mentioned, and on how much business you do with them. They mention where some are from but not all. Very rarely will anything get backed up on unless it has a flaw, at about any sale in this area. The sale owners around here either have orders or enough money to buy as many cattle as they need to, to keep a good market and sellers. There was a sale that closed in the area a few months ago that had been in business for a long time, but over time they took less and less of the cattle until they couldn't garuntee much of competitive market with the other sales in the area.

 

[crimsoncrazy]

At Oklahoma National in Okc you sell through commission company's and they set the starting price.

 

[M.Magis]

The Zanesville, Oh sale lists the name of the owner of each animal that comes through the ring on a electronic sign above the ring.

 

[Aaron]

Our sale makes up a catalog for each sale listing the number of cattle, breed, consignor and additional comments. They also announce the name of the consignor when there is good cattle in the ring. There is no floor price, which really ticks me off, so I always have to be around in case I have to bid the cattle up.

 

[DLD]

Most sale barns here do announce the sellers name. The good reputation cattle get talked up. Some sellers don't want their name announced, so some buyers take that as a sign that they're traders, and might not bid on them.

Our auctioneer sets the cattle in, but where he starts isn't usually firm. If nobody bids he backs up 'til someone does, unless he says he's not backing up - which means he has a bid at his set in price. Most of the time it takes off from his set in.

 

[Beef Man]

No announceing here at least not much as all cattle here are branded and these order buyers are well versed on who owns what. Most sale barns are also order buyers so generally the cattle bring what they are worth!!

 

[BC]

Went to the sale at Emory, TX last Tuesday. There wasn't time to announce who owned what calf. Used my cell phone's stop watch to time the auctioneer. They were averaging about 6 calves a minute selling them one at a time. Market was high as a kite.

 

[TexasBred]

I had a discussion with a CT member about auctioneers "setting cattle in" at auctions. This set "in" price.....the auctioneer must have a go- to buyer (ie. the barn itself) for this to work?
The cattle are not set in solid around here, you have to have the ear to tell if someone is "on" or not, because the auctioneer will back down if he doesn't get anyone hooked.
Around here it is very rare to announce who owns the cattle...sometimes they will say what county they are out of.
Do they announce owner at sales in other areas?

Haven't been to a sale in a long time but years ago when the guy "set a cow in" at a price, the barn was actually bidding that amount. If noone raised the barn "caught her". Now they might sell her later in the sale but there was no backing up. Feller had to really know his cows. But I hear of more and more that start out high hoping for a sucker then backing off until they can get a bid.

 

[denvermartinfarms]

I had a discussion with a CT member about auctioneers "setting cattle in" at auctions. This set "in" price.....the auctioneer must have a go- to buyer (ie. the barn itself) for this to work?
The cattle are not set in solid around here, you have to have the ear to tell if someone is "on" or not, because the auctioneer will back down if he doesn't get anyone hooked.
Around here it is very rare to announce who owns the cattle...sometimes they will say what county they are out of.
Do they announce owner at sales in other areas?

Haven't been to a sale in a long time but years ago when the guy "set a cow in" at a price, the barn was actually bidding that amount. If noone raised the barn "caught her". Now they might sell her later in the sale but there was no backing up. Feller had to really know his cows. But I hear of more and more that start out high hoping for a sucker then backing off until they can get a bid.

That's how it is here, about the only time a barn owner will back off a price is if the animal has a little something wrong.

 

[DLD]

I had a discussion with a CT member about auctioneers "setting cattle in" at auctions. This set "in" price.....the auctioneer must have a go- to buyer (ie. the barn itself) for this to work?
The cattle are not set in solid around here, you have to have the ear to tell if someone is "on" or not, because the auctioneer will back down if he doesn't get anyone hooked.
Around here it is very rare to announce who owns the cattle...sometimes they will say what county they are out of.
Do they announce owner at sales in other areas?

Haven't been to a sale in a long time but years ago when the guy "set a cow in" at a price, the barn was actually bidding that amount. If noone raised the barn "caught her". Now they might sell her later in the sale but there was no backing up. Feller had to really know his cows. But I hear of more and more that start out high hoping for a sucker then backing off until they can get a bid.

That's how it is here, about the only time a barn owner will back off a price is if the animal has a little something wrong.

Our auctioneer sets them in at what he feels is a fair price, not "looking for a sucker". Most of the time when he has to back up 10 or even 20 cents a pound to get the bidding started, they end up bringing as much or more than he originally asked for. It's more of a case of the buyers "looking for a steal" than the auctioneer "looking for a sucker".

 

[TexasBred]

Our auctioneer sets them in at what he feels is a fair price, not "looking for a sucker". Most of the time when he has to back up 10 or even 20 cents a pound to get the bidding started, they end up bringing as much or more than he originally asked for. It's more of a case of the buyers "looking for a steal" than the auctioneer "looking for a sucker".

When HIS cattle come in you can bet he's looking for a sucker, especially if he talks her up like she's the best thing that has been thru the ring that day. Lots of games go on at sale barns. Just watch the order buyers and the auctioneer. Often looks like two deaf mutes doing sign language.

 

[u4411clb]

Around here especially at Registered auctions. The auctineer will throw out a bid and that bid is basicly what they are hoping the cow or bull will bring and then they back off and let people bid. If a bull comes in and the auctioneer says 3500 no one is going to bid that and then he will drop down to 1000 but usually the bid will end back up in the 3000 to 4000 range. I guess they are mentally putting in your mind what they think it will bring. And of course sometimes that number is off. They may say 5000 and then start bidding at 1500 and only make it to 3000.

 

[a7 livestock]

All the sales I attend have the consigners name on the weight board, markets in my area are notorious for rolling cattle at a set price, my favorite thing to do is stick an old farmer with his calves that he tries to run me up on, just a week ago it happened after I won a pretty good war on 20 fancy 5 weight steers and out of nowhere a gentlemen started bidding, I caught him out of the corner of my eye and realized it wasn't another serious buyer, stuck him on buy backs

 

[Tim/South]

All the sales I attend have the consigners name on the weight board, markets in my area are notorious for rolling cattle at a set price, my favorite thing to do is stick an old farmer with his calves that he tries to run me up on, just a week ago it happened after I won a pretty good war on 20 fancy 5 weight steers and out of nowhere a gentlemen started bidding, I caught him out of the corner of my eye and realized it wasn't another serious buyer, stuck him on buy backs

Add phantom buyers to the list of games.
Had one auctioneer try that with my son. When he was in college, my son would stop by the sale and look for any good deals, then call me to pick them up.
One of the old timers told me the auctioneer ran the price up on my son the week before. I went the next week and told my son to bid in a hurry, then stop. We were buying thin calves. The bidding went back and forth real fast then my son would quit.
The auctioneer got a stupid look on his face, looked around to the regular buyers and asked which one of them had the bid, hoping someone would bail him out. He then asked my son if he wanted the calf at the previous bid? No.
Calf then had to sell again and went for what he was worth.
Broke him from sucking eggs.

 

[a7 livestock]

Agreed one hundred percent tim, Things like that really anger me.

 

[js1234]

All the sales I attend have the consigners name on the weight board, markets in my area are notorious for rolling cattle at a set price, my favorite thing to do is stick an old farmer with his calves that he tries to run me up on, just a week ago it happened after I won a pretty good war on 20 fancy 5 weight steers and out of nowhere a gentlemen started bidding, I caught him out of the corner of my eye and realized it wasn't another serious buyer, stuck him on buy backs

Add phantom buyers to the list of games.
Had one auctioneer try that with my son. When he was in college, my son would stop by the sale and look for any good deals, then call me to pick them up.
One of the old timers told me the auctioneer ran the price up on my son the week before. I went the next week and told my son to bid in a hurry, then stop. We were buying thin calves. The bidding went back and forth real fast then my son would quit.
The auctioneer got a stupid look on his face, looked around to the regular buyers and asked which one of them had the bid, hoping someone would bail him out. He then asked my son if he wanted the calf at the previous bid? No.
Calf then had to sell again and went for what he was worth.
Broke him from sucking eggs.

I would trust an auctioneer that can't/won't buy one calf to prop up the market when he thinks he has hooks in a novice buyer and doesn't want to get caught even less than one that goes on playing games.
Games are games, happen all the time. A willingness to pull back the veil over getting hung with one calf to me suggests a lack of funds or a lack of smarts, either way not someone I want to be trading with.