With so much going on at saleyards around the country, it is hard to believe that we went through a time where these were not accessible.
If there was one good thing to come out of the covid-19 lockdown, it was that Kiwi ingenuity shone through in the online trading platform space as the industry found a way to sell livestock in a virtual world.
Normality has returned though, and visiting saleyards is once again a regular feature on many to-do lists, but where has that left the online trading platforms that sprung to life while we were all hunkered down?
New Zealand Farmers Livestock (NZFL) pioneered the first hybrid auction systems at saleyards and pathed the way for cattle sales to return to rostrums around the country in level three. Since then, live-streaming and live-bidding have continued at Frankton, Rongotea, Taranaki, Morrinsville and Te Kuiti.
NZFL general manager Bill Sweeney said that the future looks bright for MyLivestock as well as the saleyard auctions.
“We have also held successful on-farm dairy sales, of which a third of the bidding was online. We now have 600 registered bidders and the option is used frequently at the yards we operate the live-bidding in,” he said.
“We are excited about new developments on the horizon, such as pre-sale information on lots, including photos or videos, and an auto-bid option.”
bidr® was already an established online platform but stepped up a gear throughout the lockdown period.