New Zealand’s virtual saleyard now operating regularly in eight North Island saleyards

Reflecting the growing appetite for online transactions in many other industries, bidr, New Zealand’s virtual saleyard, continues to make solid progress as farmers increasingly appreciate the convenience of purchasing livestock without leaving the farm.

Hybrid sales, where traditional ‘in person’ on-farm or saleyard auctions are simultaneously live-streamed for buyers throughout the country are how most bidr sales are conducted. Illustrating the strong uptake of these sales, in 2020, the first year bidr offered hybrid sales, 33 hybrid two year old bull sales took place, a number that grew to 87 two year old bull sales this season, with online bidding accounting for seven per cent of all bids at those sales, and an average online audience of over 100 people: this in a category of sales that has traditionally featured highly on rural social calendars, with strong ‘in person’ attractions.

While online engagement varies between livestock categories, familiarity and comfort with the platform is growing steadily with growing interest in machinery and dairy clearing sales. In dairy hybrid sales for example approximately one third of all bids are lodged from online buyers, and in December an elite dairy herd of crossbred Friesian in-calf cows from Winton, Southland, offered exclusively online, sold for $2175 per head, or $783,000: the largest value to date for a single lot at a New Zealand online livestock auction.

Several farmers this winter have taken it a step further, for example buying livestock via bidr when on holiday in Fiji, or visiting relations in the United States. Several bidr sales have been monitored by registered buyers in Australia and the United Kingdom.

bidr has also taken its hybrid platform to the saleyards. Last year Feilding was the first saleyard to use bidr for its weekly sale. Now bidr is a routine feature at the regular sales for eight North Island major selling centres, with the capability to attend and add on a hybrid bidr auction as an option for larger sales at any saleyard around the country. While it is not uncommon to have 30 per cent or more of all bids at saleyards coming from online buyers, overall online buyers account for around 15 per cent of all bids at saleyards.