Internet cattle?

[tomnt369]

Do you buy or sell cattle online? I usually buy from local folks that I know. Just curious if anybody has had bad/good experiences with online cattle.

I'll add that I'm old enough to remember no internet, cell phones or more than 3 TV stations, so I might be an "old foagee"

:cboy:

 

[TennesseeTuxedo]

We bought 15 bred heifers from a gentleman in Greensbug, KY. He runs his ad on Cattle Range year round. This was in 2012 and I called him last night to wish him a happy 89th BIRTHDAY!

You're never to old to learn a new way to do business.

 

[dun]

I've bought cows from production sales online via DVAuctions. May be doing it again in 2 weeks. The difference this time is I will have time to actually see the cattle before the sale instead of just watching videos of them.

 

[BRYANT]

I have bought and sold on Craig list, as with anything there is good and there is bad.

 

[Ky hills]

I have bought and sold on Craig list, as with anything there is good and there is bad.

I have as well, and that has been my experience with Craigs list cattle too. I would add that sometimes folks will price cattle a lot higher on Craigs list than they would bring on the market, sometimes the quality is there and price is not far off for good quality animals, other times not so much.

 

[backhoeboogie]

It is not something I could bring myself to do.

Too many times I have gone to buy a bull and came home with an empty trailer. Bull looked good in pics but in person he wasn't what I wanted. Its really good I did not commit to buy before I got there.

 

[Lucky_P]

Sold some on The Cattle Range 8-9 yrs ago; went pretty smoothly. Those went to someone fairly local, but I got a couple of calls from folks in MO.

Bid on some bulls in a video auction about 3 weeks ago, handled by LiveAuctionsTV - it was a frustratingly bad experience: their format really sucks; had to constantly be 'refreshing' the page anytime someone else placed a bid on anything.
About an hour and a half after the 'Race Horse Finish' period began, a bunch of the bulls - including one that we were bidding for - disappeared from the offering. A sale report was posted, showing us as the winning bidder on that bull ... but when we looked 8 hours later, another buyer was listed as the winner - at the same $ figure - but, based on the proxy bid we had in place, that second buyer would have had to pay $500 more.
Farm manager/wife was livid - we'd left and gone about our chores thinking we'd bought the bull - he was no long showing up on the site, no way to monitor - or continue bidding on him - and no reason to think that we needed to.
Seller says, 'It must have been a computer glitch.'
Folks at LiveAuctionTV claim the sale went on for another 2 and a half hours, after half the bulls in the sale 'disappeared' and the 'unofficial' sale report was posted; won't or can't explain why 24 bulls just 'disappeared' from the offerint.
I won't be bidding or buying in another sale hosted by LiveAuctionTV. The seller lost a customer, and his breed probably lost an avid supporter(me)... we bought a bull this weekend at a traditional auction... another breed... and I may not be back for another bull of that breed.

Guess it could have been worse. Check out what happened to this guy...
http://www.dtnprogressivefarmer.com/dtn ... tion_num=1

 

[HDRider]

My brother got his Longhorns out of Texas thru Cattle Range. Worked out good.

 

[ropinranger]

Bought some bred heifers on cattle range last year, no issues

 

[Fire Sweep Ranch]

I have bought two heifers in online sales, and was happy with both. I have also bought most of my embryo stock from online sales.
I sell most of my bulls on Craigslist, and in most cases put up a video so buyers can get a good look before driving out....

 

[js1234]

I have bought on Internet auction sites both through their live auctions and silent auctions. Superior, Roundup and Big Blue. Western does Internet only auctions too now that I think of it.

 

[boondocks]

[.....]

Guess it could have been worse. Check out what happened to this guy...
http://www.dtnprogressivefarmer.com/dtn ... tion_num=1

Interesting write-up, thanks for sharing. Seems like even if the website owner isn't governed by the applicable act (because he gets a flat fee, not commission), it is still a conflict of interest for him to bid on the cattle he's running the auction on: in this case, he used his authority as the website owner to "un-do" the sale to himself, for whatever reason.

At a minimum, anyone running an online auction website should not be able to take advantage of the fact that is is "their" website to skew the rules of the auction in a way that an outside buyer wouldn't find predictable or reasonable. Wonder if he had disclosed in the fine print that he reserved the right to bid on animals himself, and to then withdraw his winning bid without notice (thereby "sticking" the second-highest bidder, who has been then likely relied on the fact that he didn't win that bid)...

 

[poorfarmer]

Guess it could have been worse. Check out what happened to this guy...
http://www.dtnprogressivefarmer.com/dtn ... tion_num=1

What a joke, who's to say they don't bid up all the cattle and then just drop it back to second highest bidder and in return 44 Farms or any other seller is willing to pay a higher flat rate to their auction company. If they want to bid, they should be on the hook if they win.

 

[SPH]

Never bought anything online, have bought a bull over the phone at a production sale once though. We do market cattle on Craigslist along with maintaining our own website and Facebook page and sometimes place some ads in some Ag publications or other livestock websites if needed. With Craigslist you are going to get all kinds of buyers and sellers, its going to be a different experience for anyone really. We've built up some good repeat business from people that found us through a Craigslist ad. As long as you are an honest breeder, have good cattle, and know what they are worth and how to deal with the various kinds of people that will inquire about your cattle it's as good of a marketing tool as any IMO. It doesn't take much in the cattle business to get a bad reputation, people are going to have a lot more trust and respect for your program if you run an honest and clean program and that usually leads to repeat business too.

 

[boondocks]

Guess it could have been worse. Check out what happened to this guy...
http://www.dtnprogressivefarmer.com/dtn ... tion_num=1

What a joke, who's to say they don't bid up all the cattle and then just drop it back to second highest bidder and in return 44 Farms or any other seller is willing to pay a higher flat rate to their auction company. If they want to bid, they should be on the hook if they win.

Does seem sketchy, don't it. At least has the appearance of being ripe for abuse. Or, at a minimum, misunderstandings.
I think if you run an auction, you should be transparent and avoid conflicts of interest--would've thought that was a requirement, actually.

 

[allisonr]

We've only ever purchased one through an online auction. But we had went to the farm (it was nearby) and viewed her and others beforehand. I definitely prefer purchasing animals in person where I can take time to view them and ask questions. I enjoy viewing auctions on BreedersWorld, Willoughby (more showy animals, I know) but its just for funnsies. The one thing I like is when auctions post videos of the lot, which gives you a much better view of the animal than going off of a single photo of the lot.

On topic of the dtn article here's my two cents:
When we bid through BreedersWorld, once you submit your bid, it shows the next highest bid needed underneath (or beside I forget) the current highest bid, showing you how much you would have to bid to be the highest bidder. It's a screwy set up and has confused me before as to what the price was if I'm not paying attention. Maybe I'm wrong, but the guy said the new bid showed up under his bid, so I'm thinking his bid was the highest at $4000, and the $4250 was the next increment up. I could be wrong, as I'm not familiar with liveauctions.tv's set up, but I've seen auctions set up like this before.

 

[TCRanch]

I've had good luck selling bred heifers on KS Farmers/Ranchers on Facebook & it gives you somewhat of an idea who you're dealing with. You probably have something similar in AR.

 

[Son of Butch]

Bid on some bulls in a video auction about 3 weeks ago, handled by LiveAuctionsTV - it was a frustratingly bad experience: their format really sucks; had to constantly be 'refreshing' the page anytime someone else placed a bid on anything.
About an hour and a half after the 'Race Horse Finish' period began, a bunch of the bulls - including one that we were bidding for - disappeared from the offering. A sale report was posted, showing us as the winning bidder on that bull ... but when we looked 8 hours later, another buyer was listed as the winner - at the same $ figure - but, based on the proxy bid we had in place, that second buyer would have had to pay $500 more.
Farm manager/wife was livid - we'd left and gone about our chores thinking we'd bought the bull - he was no long showing up on the site, no way to monitor - or continue bidding on him - and no reason to think that we needed to.
Seller says, 'It must have been a computer glitch.'
Folks at LiveAuctionTV claim the sale went on for another 2 and a half hours, after half the bulls in the sale 'disappeared' and the 'unofficial' sale report was posted; won't or can't explain why 24 bulls just 'disappeared' from the offerint.
I won't be bidding or buying in another sale hosted by LiveAuctionTV.

Guess it could have been worse. Check out what happened to this guy...
http://www.dtnprogressivefarmer.com/dtn ... tion_num=1

WOW. Thanks for posting!

 

[coachg]

I've had two experiences, one on Craig's List and one on here. Both have been good experiences. Bought 13 bred cows and a herd bull from Oklahoma on Craig's List. My son had a friend that lived close to the cows and went to look at them for us. His comment was" if you guys don't buy them I am !". Then in Jan this year I bought 11 bred cows and one bred heifer from Gizmom. 10 have calved and one is due any day. Only the heifer to go after her. Heifers make me anxious ! Very pleased with both sets of calves and the cows! :cboy:

 

[dun]

Besides the cows I bought in the dispersal sale via DVAuctions, I sold a bull to some folks in southern AR via craigslist. I had forgot about him. Listed him a little high, got the full price.