Live Stock Auctions

[RhodeIslandReds]

I am going to a livestock auction on Friday to get some animals and need some suggestions on picking the best animal. I will be going to get pigs 1boy 2girls, baby goat, and will see how much the sheep are running for. What shoud I look for when getting these animals any certain signs I should look for when there in there pens? The pigs are for the freezer so I dont mind them but what should a baby goat and sheep look like active or noactive.

Any info will help this is my first time going to a auction

Thanks,
RIRs

 

[Olive Hill]

Honestly, I would strongly encourage you to rethink your plan. It is a very bad idea to buy livestock at an auction when you know nothing about the livestock you are buying. Even very seasoned producers end up losing auction animals at some point or another. Auctions are simply not a place for newbies. Especially when you're trying to buy three different types of stock in one night.

The pigs are for the freezer so you don't mind them? Why have you already decided what genders you are buying then? Did you know pigs can carry disease that can be left in your soil for YEARS? Serious disease that should you decide to get more pigs later could seriously affect your success with them? You won't know by looking at them if they're carriers or not.

The same goes for goats, btw.

Did you know that baby bottle lambs are notoriously less thrifty than their ewe raised counterparts and that the stress of the auction experience would be likely to make a non-thriver even worse off?

The above only even begins to scratch the surface of what you're unwittingly getting yourself into. If you want livestock, GREAT! But this is a very bad way to go about acquiring them.

 

[ChickyLaura]

I live about 5 minutes away from a livestock auction, and I've bought chicks and chickens there. I haven't had bad luck. I just quarantined the new animals. Just make sure that you look the animals over VERY WELL before you buy them, and don't buy anything you haven't had a chance to look over. Once the auctions start, they move very quickly. I have a hard time understanding the auctioneers so my DH has to translate for me!

I don't know about pigs, goats, or sheep, so I would definitely research those animals before buying them.

It's also easy to get caught up in the action, and I've already left with a lot more than I planned on getting. This year I think I'm going to seriously limit my time there, because I do tend to get carried away. Also, watch how the people treat the animals. I've been to other auctions where the animals were really "man handled" and I don't go to those auctions any more.

Edited to add: I've met 2 people from BYC at that auction. But please do remember the saying "Buyer Beware"! Just be aware of what you are buying, and make sure you know what you should and shouldn't buy. If an animal doesn't "look right" - don't buy it. Remember, these people are selling the animals there for one reason or another.

 

[19hhbelgian]

I honestly have to agree with the above poster. Unless you really know what you're looking at, I wouldn't go to an auction. A lot of people will send their sick animals there to get rid of them. I don't mean to sound rude, but being blunt here - if you know what you should be looking for in any of these animals, you shouldn't have to ask if you should look for an active or non-active kid or lamb. If an animal is sluggish at auction, it is most likely either sick or drugged. I'm sorry for being blunt, it just sounds like it might be a bad idea for you to go to auction for your animals at this point in time, but that is your decision, and I wish you the best if you do go

 

[gmendoza]

I concurr with the above posts.I have been to Stockyard Auction in Rock Hill,SC. The best thing I got out of an auction is finding the breeder I go to in Fort Mill,SC. He was there selling some of his roos. I talked to him and came over his farm to check out his set-up. Now I buy directly from him. If you want those type of animals,find a breeder,inspect his set-up, then decide to buy. Find out all you can about those animals and the breeder. Alittle more knowledge goes along way.

 

[patandchickens]

If by "for the freezer" you mean you will be buying grown animals and taking them directly to a processor (or butchering them immediately yourself, although I doubt you mean that with hogs as it's quite a job to do just one!), then all you need to do is avoid animals that look likely to have problems that would render them unfit for consumption.

However I have a feeling you mean you want to buy feeder pigs and grow them up TO eating size; and you seem to want to keep the sheep/goats.

In which case I would say, very very strongly, "if you have to ask what to look for, you should really not be buying at a mixed livestock auction".

In significant part that's where people dump their culls, and many (most?) of the culls are not there because their ears were 2" too short to make good show stock or things like that, they're there for PHYSICAL REASONS like diseases.

If you aren't really pretty well-experienced with a particular kind of animal already, buying at open auction is just a great big huge kick-me sign. (By open or mixed auctions, I mean "as opposed to breeders' auctions, containing only one species or sometimes even only one breed", which is a bit of a different situation but not what you seem to be talking about here)

You COULD get lucky and have nothing go wrong, but, the odds are against you and buying sick animals can cost you a buncha money and germs can linger for *years* in your soil.

Just sayin',

Pat

 

[Katy]

All livestock auctions are not bad. How do you all think we people who raise livestock for a living sell our animals.....most of us sell thru a sale barn. There is nothing wrong with 99% of the animals sold there. I get so sick of people bad mouthing things they don't have any idea about.

 

[Olive Hill]

Quote:
The majority of livestock auctions aren't inherently bad. That still doesn't make them a good place for a person who doesn't know a darn thing about the livestock therein to buy animals. I can't believe you'd actually be arguing otherwise.

 

[patandchickens]

Quote:
Wow. I've sure never lived anywhere remotely like that. Perhaps it IS that way where you live. However, having lived over the years in PA, NC, OH, NJ, NY and now Ontario, and been to at least *some* sort of open livestock auction in each of those states, I have to say that it sure ain't like that anywhere I've been.

So I think the odds of it being like that wherever the o.p. is from are pretty slim.

Nobody (that I can see) is saying there's anything WRONG with livestock auctions, it's just that they are generally no place for someone inexperienced enough to have to ASK how you tell good'uns from sick'uns.

Pat

 

[paddock36]

I have bought poultry at our local small animal auction but I am very careful. You are allowed to look at all the animals before the sale which I always do.