More stud bull sales being held by video rather than bulls coming into pen

While this technique may be contrasting to the traditional way of running stud sales, it is being adopted widely because of its welfare, safety, financial and location benefits.

Elders stud stock representative Ross Milne said this concept has become more prominent in the last 10 years, but is at the peak of its popularity now.

“There’s less stress on the bulls when you don’t have to get them through the sale ring, and from a labour perspective, it means you need less people helping to get them in and out,” Mr Milne said.

“If you’re a new stud, or moving to a new property, you can just run the sale in a shed, rather than building a permanent facility that you’re only going to use once a year anyway.”

Mr Milne recalled the first ever sale he conducted by video, Wolbull Poll Hereford stud, Camperdown, who in the early 2000s adopted this technology for “ease of movement of the cattle”.

He said he is still supportive of bulls coming through the sale ring, but in his experience, hasn’t seen a negative result from a video sale.

For health and safety reasons, as well as for ease of management, Merridale Angus stud principal Peter Collins, Tennyson, decided to conduct his on-property sale by video for the first time this year.

“We know that bulls can stir up for no reason, even the quietest of bulls, and I felt that it was damaging to the perception of the bull that was firing up,” Mr Collins said.

“We normally have eight friends helping get the bulls through the ring, as well as agents, and this year didn’t need that, it made it so much easier.”

He said this year’s top-priced buyer, a new buyer from Queensland, purchased the bull based on the footage recorded prior to the sale.

“He had seen the footage online, and bought the bull without seeing it in person, purely by seeing a video of it,” he said.

He said there may have been a few sceptical regular clients, but overall, the result was a success and he would continue running sales by video in the years to come.

After 14 years bringing bulls through the sale ring, Newcomen Hereford stud principal Barry Newcomen, Ensay, this year also ran his on-property sale via video.

Mr Newcomen said his sales had been held out at a grandstand near a dry creek bed, which had always been risky in case of rain.

“We had to change the location sooner or later, so we built a new shed, and could either build a new sale ring inside, or do the sales by video,” Mr Newcomen said.

Having seen a lot of other studs conduct video sales, he decided to run his sales that way, believing there are multiple benefits to the method.

“When the bulls are out in the display pens, they’re walking in groups of eight to 10, so sometimes you can’t see them properly, but in the videos you see them walking up and down and can actually see their movement,” he said.

“In the sale rings, they often come in with their heads down, and if you sell them in groups, sometimes they’ll fight, so you’re not displaying them to their best potential in the ring.”

He said he was happy with the result of the sale, and only received one negative comment from a buyer, who ended up buying two bulls anyway.

Karen Edwards, Woodside, purchased the top-priced bull at Newcomen’s sale, but said she appreciates the old-fashioned way of seeing bulls come through the ring.

“Even though you walk around beforehand and make a shortlist of which bulls you want to buy, it’s good to get a last minute look at them in the flesh when they come out in the ring,” Ms Edwards said.

But she said she doesn’t find video sales to be a big problem, and can see the advantages.

“I think you do have to do it that way, probably for the benefit of the animal and for OH&S (Occupational Health & Safety) reasons, even though sale bulls are generally quiet, it would be highly stressful to come out into a small pen,” she said.

Brandon Sykes, BJS Livestock Photography, said the majority of his business nowadays is kept to preparing videos for bull sales.

“It takes about half a day, depending on how many bulls will be in the sale, to get all the video footage, but then you don’t have to worry about anything else,” Mr Sykes said.

He said he often visits the property three to four weeks prior to the sale, videos each animal individually for up to a minute, then edits the footage, and gets it up online.

On the day of the sale, he utilises big television screens in the sheds to display the videos of each lot.

“It’s pretty simple, and the sale runs a lot more smoothly,” he said.