Taking Stock is a weekly opinion piece written by The Land team members.
Sale-o sale-o.
Anyone that knows me well knows I have a great passion for auctioneering.
From an early age you'd find me studying Dad's bull sale catalogues, analysing animal pedigrees, predicting prices and memorising buyers.
I have driven my parents mad pretending to auction off a catalogue in our lounge room either predicting the sale prices or trying to emulate the price which the animal was sold for.
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Then I discovered the famous Betty Botter, Woodchuck and various other tongue twisters. Let's just say my family knows them very well now too.
I believe the Australian stud stock auctioneering industry right now is undoubtedly ruled by one man...Paul Dooley. Even at my young age I feel fortunate to have witnessed Paul sell.
An interesting thing I ponder as I write this column is how many rams and bulls has Paul bought the gavel down on?
Michael Glasser and Brian Leslie also feature prominently in the stud stock rostrums across the eastern states of Australia predominately in New South Wales and Victoria.
Being a New South Welshman I haven't been exposed to much of the Queensland stud stock circuit but Wayne York, Peter Brazier and Josh Heck spring to mind immediately.
It'll be interesting to see when Paul brings the gavel down for the last time who steps up to take his place.
In my opinion Lincoln McKinlay is one to watch, especially after his rise to Australian champion, his international experience and success in the south.
Maybe someone reading this might be the next big thing?
Unfortunately I missed the era of Tony Dowe, Garth Hughes and Kevin Norris.
I believe at one stage Tony had sold a Collinsville ram for $330,000 and every $100,000 bull in the country.
That's a pretty handy resume.
From all I've read and hear, these three were wonderful auctioneers.
An interesting thing is none of these three would've received formal training.
Recently the mighty Magic Millions sales have been conducted, and even though this is a different industry you must appreciate how good Clint Donovan and Steve Davis are.
So what makes a great auctioneer?
A few things that spring to mind are charisma and personality, knowing the product, reading the crowd, a passion for the job, being confident, entertaining, assertive and, above all else, a great communicator.
Most importantly it's about getting the best value for their client, drawing one extra bid is a vendor's dream.
The men mentioned above are great ones of the industry.
It's interesting to see on the world stage a huge number of both rookie and international champions in the recent years are graduates of the famed World Wide Collage of Auctioneering.
It intrigues me why we haven't seen more Australian youngsters attend American auction schools?
We all know they do it better than anyone else.
Yes, there are some differences.
They ask for the bid they want, not the bid they have and also are super fast paced but from watching their student auctions and training videos online it's little wonder their graduates win.
I would love to see the passion, enthusiasm and excitement they teach become a normality at Australian stud stock auctions.
Despite 2020 being the year of online, let's remember live auctions are still the way of the future.
Everyone loves the theatre of a live auction, you can't beat it. I still believe auctioneers commanding a crowd is the number one way to sell stud stock.
Well the scene is set, the year's stud selling scene is about to commence.
So the next time you attend a stud stock sale, stop and think for a moment.
Did you notice the auctioneers ability to draw an extra bid? Or see when one couldn't do it?
Take a moment to appreciate the dedication, detail and professionalism of the main act before you.
Do you want him or not?
Bidding quickly...all done!
Matthew's current super sellers
- Paul Dooley
- Brian Leslie
- Michael Glasser
-Lincoln McKinlay
- Joel Fleming
- Josh Heck
- Wayne York
- Peter Brazier
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