Global Auction Blog

5/5/2008 9:13:00 AM

It’s The Pitts: Used, Not Abused

All right, I admit it: I’m an auction junkie. If there’s an auction somewhere in the general vicinity I’m there. Buying at auction is not only fun, it’s smart. With costs of all kinds spiraling upwards it behooves all of us to lower our expenses and there is no better place to achieve this goal than at an auction. Here’s a partial list of the best buys at estate, farm and ranch auctions in my opinion.

Hand Tools: My shop is filled with tools I’ve purchased at farm, ranch and estate sales. (So is our house.) Tools that are truly made in America are getting harder to find than a Notary Public and that’s why I buy older USA made hand tools at farm auctions.  I have sat through many a farm auction waiting for an old battered tool box that was full of tools only to discover that’s what everyone else was waiting for too.           

Livestock panels: These are always sought after at farm and ranch sales. Just make sure that you don’t pay more for them than they can be purchased brand new. 

Head and shoulder mounts of impressive game animals: They are cheaper and easier to find than doing it yourself.

Old cars: They’re so cheap you can usually find enough change buried in the seats to pay for one. 

Certified preowned tractors and farm implements: Guaranteed to be old, rusty and worth their weight in scrap iron.

Guns: You can buy barely used firearms for pennies on the dollar. While I approve of the purchase of guns never, ever, buy used ammo. It’s illegal and the shells may have been reloaded by some whacko with a sick sense of humor.

Here are some items you should carefully reconsider before bidding on them.

Cattle Scales: I once bought a set of used scales from a defunct cow trader and I never did get the scales to weigh right.  They always weighed light.

Old Batteries, Tires and Beer Kegs: Even if they have a little life left in them you are going to be stuck paying someone to take them off your hands. Unless you can find someone as stupid as you were to buy them.

Cattle Truck: With gas prices rising and the low prices of used trucks and trailers one might be tempted to buy your own truck. Just burn the money you were going to spend and save yourself a nervous breakdown. Ditto for 3 wheeled ATV’s.

Ropes: Do you really want to pay your entry fees, travel to the roping and then swing a rope that the former owner used to tow a broken down car purchased at a farm auction? Besides, it could have some bad roper’s mojo.

Things that plugs in: Buying an old SkilSaw or early model of an electric drill can be a shocking experience. Don’t buy old computers unless you need a boat anchor.

Branding Irons: Why would you want to put someone else’s brand on your cattle?

Buckets of bolts, nuts and washers: I’m a sucker for these but when I considered all the time I have spent sorting them I figured each washer that I actually used cost me about twelve bucks. This goes for old, rusty and bent fence staples too.

Vet Supplies: Old needles can spread disease and 1985 bottles of LA 200 may have lost some of its zing. Used preg-checking sleeves are never a good idea either.

Sprinkler Pipe: Don’t get me wrong, you can probably save more money buying used sprinkler pipe than any other item. But changing pipe is hard work and do you really want to work that hard?

Primitives: I don’t really know what this word means but you hear it a lot at farm and estate sales. I think it refers to stuff that was popular when you were a kid, like sewing machines, janitorial supplies and pots and pans. The problem is where are you going to find anyone who knows how to use these things? Trust me, they’ll sit in your house unused until it’s time for your estate sale and then they’ll sell for even less than you paid.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Tom DiNardo is the founding charity auctioneer and current master wine appraiser for DiNardo & Lord Auctioneers. Mr. DiNardo is regarded as one of the best qualified charity auctioneers and wine appraisers in the US today.
I have been invited on June 10-11, 2008 to be a wine judge for the California Wine Competition in Sacramento California. This wine competition and judging event is the nation’s oldest and most prestigious wine competition.

Tom DiNardo advises all potential customers who seek the services of certified wine appraisers to verify their education, experience and credentials. Most importantly, he stresses that all certified wine appraisers will possess the USPAP certification and will charge you only a flat fee or hourly rate in performing your wine appraisal. Anyone else charging a percentage of value or lacking the appropriate credentials, experience or certifications is a fraud.

Popularity: 18% [?]

Kevin Hursh, The StarPhoenix

Published: Wednesday, April 02, 2008

It’s a time of life-changing decisions for a lot of farm families. The economic assumptions in agriculture have been dramatically altered during the past year and producers are reacting accordingly.

More than the usual numbers of young people are coming back to the farm. This isn’t based on any official statistics — just anecdotal evidence from talking to a lot of producers.

“Our son is coming back to farm with us. He’s bought a bit of land and we’re renting some more land this year.” This kind of story is much more common this spring.

The economics of grain farming haven’t looked this positive in decades and it is convincing some to take the plunge and return to the family operation.

That often means buying or renting more land to make it viable for Dad and Mom as well as the next generation. With more land comes the need for larger equipment. There are long waiting lists for many types of new equipment, so there are all sorts of deals happening for good, used farm machinery.

Lending institutions are doing a brisk farm business for farm land, machinery and operating capital. It helps that interest rates are low and have been dropping.

There’s no guarantee how long good grain prices will last. Futures markets have seen unprecedented volatility, but there continue to be opportunities to lock in attractive prices for the crop year ahead.

There’s also no guarantee input costs won’t continue to increase and could dramatically squeeze net returns in the years ahead. While there’s no certainty, there is optimism the next few years could be good ones to be growing grain.

There are also more farmers than usual exiting the grain business. Despite the bright outlook, there are a massive number of auction sales this spring. If you were looking to end your farming career, now is a great time to get good value for your equipment and land.

For many farm operations, there isn’t a next generation interested in continuing the tradition and there is now an opportunity to leave with more cash than seemed possible just a couple of years ago.

While these are optimistic times for grain, livestock producers are looking down a long dark tunnel searching for some rays of hope. For those in the cattle business, these are tough times with even worse returns than during the years of the BSE crisis. Many mixed farms with both grain and cattle are letting the cattle side go.

In addition to the dismal economic outlook for beef production, labour availability is an issue. Producers in their 60s are often deciding to reduce their workload by getting rid of the cows while keeping the grain side of the business.

There are also producers who have determined off-farm income makes more sense for them than staying close to the farm to look after a relatively small herd of cows through the winter.

The number of family farm hog operations has dwindled rapidly over the years and with the terrible losses currently facing that industry, smaller family run operations are an endangered species.

Producers who leave the hog business now are unlikely to return when profitability finally returns to the sector.
As time proceeds, statistics will eventually become available to confirm all these trends. Farm debt will be up from all the new loans. Land prices will be stronger. Beef and hog numbers are going to decline.

Behind the statistics are the lives of farm families. A dramatically altered economic outlook is encouraging major changes in who will be operating farms in the years ahead as well as how they will be run.

Kevin Hursh is a consulting agrologist and farmer based in Saskatoon. He can be reach at kevin@hursh.ca.

Popularity: 16% [?]