A little dissatisfied with the sale barn today.

[highgrit]

The owner of the sale barn was bidding on cows, and buying them today. Just not something I think should be going on. In my eyes it's a conflict of interest. Just wondering how you guy's see it?

 

[skyhightree1]

The owner of the sale barn was bidding on cows, and buying them today. Just not something I think should be going on. In my eyes it's a conflict of interest. Just wondering how you guy's see it?

It happens at some barns I attend. I have mixed feelings about it and am anxious to see what others will say.

 

[Deepsouth]

I don't see a problem with it as long as he's the high bidder. But if he bids to up the price and never buys one I have a problem with that.

 

[Rafter S]

I don't see anything wrong with it. The buyers might not like it, but they can always over bid him. And it's helping his sellers, isn't it?

 

[LRTX1]

Years ago I sold a handful of steers, pretty identical, one sold for half of the others. The owner bought him.

 

[Nesikep]

I don't buy at sale barns, so the more they want to bid on them the better for me

He could always just have an agent doing his work for him... perhaps not ethical, but no one would be any wiser.

I have more of an issue with ag dealers at EVERY auction buying everything, trying to sell it for twice as much on their lot, and bringing all the busted stuff back to the auctions

 

[highgrit]

I definitely think it helped the sellers, but WHO was the seller? I had the feeling he ran some up and then got out. I left before my calves sold. The sale was dragging along at a snails pace. A broken mouth Angus looking cow wouldn't leave the ring, tried turning the lights out, tried bringing 4 cows back in the ring. Finally had to beat the crap out of her and that almost didn't work. Then a Holstein cow jumped into the Auctioneer and knocked everything into the ring and broke the microphone and some other things. There was lots of nice slaughter bulls with broken tools and some had foot troubles, and were limping bad.

 

[1982vett]

#1....He is buying for someone or himself.
#2....A seller has put in a floor price.

 

[tom4018]

You see owners or employees bid here all the time. One barn here is owned by 5 or 6 people, one of the owners has bought feeders for me before.

 

[branguscowgirl]

He is kind of double dipping in a way. He gets paid to sell them, so he can bid a little higher on them taking that into consideration. Though it is good if you are on the selling end. Just part of business I suppose.

 

[BobbyLummus1]

The owner will buy occasionally here too ( mostly when a decent cow goes for close to kill price - not too often lately ) . He doesn't tend to get into the bidding wars , just takes a bred or pair here and there when they don't sell real good . I don't see a problem with that if its not every sale and too often

 

[Alan]

I haven't seen the owner buy, I don't know who the owner is. But I have seen one of the main employees buy, he usually buys cow/calf pairs. I don't have a problem with it, I've seen plenty of other buyers out bid him. He helps sellers and buyers can always out bid him.

 

[kenny thomas]

You would not like it here at all. The owner of the barn here buys almost all the good cows that come through. The manager that runs the business buys maybe 1/2 the calves and a few cows. I sit beside the acutioneer and write the sale tickets and I buy a few calves each week and some of the thin cows. It has been this way so long here that nobody thinks bad about it. Every week 1 or 2 people either stop by or call and tell me to buy them something. This week one guy wanted a fat calf for a beef and another wanted a baby calf. Neither even came to the sale.

 

[jedstivers]

Every barn owner buys at their sale. They are called catch calves/cattle or they are buying for someone. If they didn't bid then the cattle would sell cheaper.
Right now I have a nice tigerstripe the barn owner had to buy, they thought she was a little hot and didn't want anything to do with her. I was there the next day picking up what my buyer had bought and he offered her to me for 1,200, he had 1,205 in her and just wanted his money back and her gone. I couldn't turn that down so I put her in the trailer. Hot really don't mean much here, we get everything the way we buy out of the barns but she settled right down and is doing good. I hope when she goes to The City she does 2K or better. She should.

 

[Tim/South]

I have no problem with barn owners or auctioneers buying cattle.

 

[Ojp6]

I think the barn owner runs cattle and buys some at most barns. One sale I go to the owner just puts a bottom on everything when they come in and if you want it you better bid. He usually buys a lot of them too. Those types of owners are usually just trying to get every dollar they can out of your cattle. I've also seen it where one family owns four barns and one barn gets a lot better prices on bred cows than the other three so the owners will buy up most of the cows and pairs at their other barns and take them to the bigger one. Either way they are helping the seller. One sale I go to the owner buys 90% of the feeders that sell down in the money, cuts them, de horns them and vaccinates them, and then turns them out on a feeder behind the sale for 45 days until he can sell them as weaned and shots calves. One owner at a sale I used to go to has between 5 and 10,000 head on feed year round so he is always buying a few to put in the feedyard.

 

[ddd75]

why would they not be allowed to buy theM? its an auction, and anyone can buy anything.

 

[BC]

I personally don't have a problem with a barn owner bidding on cattle. As a buyer, my job is to buy the cattle for my customers at as a low of cost as I can. The sale owner has a responsibility to get as much for his consignors as the market will allow. If the owner is willing to give more than I have on a class of cattle, then my customer and I are just out of the market and have to wait for another day.

 

[Deepsouth]

why would they not be allowed to buy theM? its an auction, and anyone can buy anything.

The auctioneer here brings his cattle trailer every week.

 

[Texas PaPaw]

I personally don't have a problem with a barn owner bidding on cattle. As a buyer, my job is to buy the cattle for my customers at as a low of cost as I can. The sale owner has a responsibility to get as much for his consignors as the market will allow. If the owner is willing to give more than I have on a class of cattle, then my customer and I are just out of the market and have to wait for another day.

Agree! It's a public auction so anyone can bid and to get the animal the owner has to out bid everyone else. If owner/employee buys an animal it is because he was high bidder and that is to the seller's benefit. Sale barn works for the seller.

Think it is against P&S rules for auctioneer to bid but not owner or employees.