As the many landscapes of agriculture in Australia evolve from year to year, so does the manner in which industry participants choose to engage.
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From previous years of weekly updates arriving in the mailbox, today's technology has the ability to instantly connect vastly remote places across the globe.
From a livestock perspective, while online sales have removed the geographic barriers that once existed between buyers and sellers, the ability to connect socially through livestock sales is still a crucial component for rural communities.
In recognising the need for community engagement and interaction, in an age of increasing online activity, David Welsh and Colin Broughton, from Landmark Benalla and Landmark Euroa, respectively, have ensured a social component features as a crucial part of their annual online AuctionsPlus lamb sale.
The Annual North East Victorian Lamb, Backgrounder and Finisher Sale run by David and Colin, has been running online on AuctionsPlus for 15 years now.
"I felt that we could market the lambs, the clients and our district a lot better," David said.
However, for David and Colin, a social aspect is important for each sale.
"We used to all have the social outing at the sale yards but that's not how we are conducting business as much, but it's still crucial growers have the opportunity to share ideas and talk but it's just in a different setting," David said.
For the past few years David and Col have run an event, inviting their clients to get together at the local pub and watch the sale together over lunch.
"To be able to gather our clients together and all get off farm is extremely important, working together on a collaborative perspective and a community perspective is critical," David said.
"It was great that we can have the whole family at the event, saleyards are open for anyone but traditionally only the husband attends.
"In 2018, we had both decisions makers in the business, the husband's and wife's attending...which made for some interesting discussions.''
According to David, developing long term relationships and repeat buyers is the key to a good sale outcome.
"Most of these repeat buyers wouldn't be able to travel to the local yards to compete on these lambs, with many of them interstate," David said.
"Hardly anyone was using AuctionsPlus from the area back in 2004, but I wanted to open up our clients to a far greater buying audience."
"We could put together 10,000 lambs and the opportunity to reduce any stress on the lambs made sense.".
- Contributed by AuctionsPlus
