But times have changed, with the number of live, on-farm auctions seeing a drastic decline in recent years.

Today’s younger farmers may actually never experience going to one, but they are still very likely to buy something sold through a farm auction.

“The 30- to 40-year-olds are now my buyers,” says Jason LeBlanc, strategic advisor with Steffes Auctioneers.

“And that generation doesn’t necessarily like going to a sale, the environment we used to create.”

And there’s another factor at play working against live, on-farm auctions: as the number of Prairie farms declines, there aren’t as many people living in a local area to attract to a live sale.

“It was nothing to get 500 or 600 people at a sale,” he adds.

“For some of the bigger sales, we’d give out 1,000 or 1,200 bid numbers. That was a normal practice. Now, to get 500 people to a sale, that circle is probably drawing up to 1,000 miles. You just don’t draw those big crowds anymore.

“You have to draw from a large distance now to get a yard full of people.”

However, thanks to technology, farm sales often see large numbers of bidders registered online, following the sale remotely. That online participation is what continues to make farm auctions a viable way to dispose of equipment and even property.

LeBlanc says Steffes, like other firms, still gives farmers the option of having a live, on-farm sale. However, the sale would still be open to online bidders, and he hasn’t seen a significant difference in sale prices if the sale is held live on the farm or timed online only.

With more than 30 years in the auction business, he says the on-farm sales still hold an appeal for him.

“We’d love to do them. We’re cut from that cloth. And we like to do the online live auctions. We’ve done a couple of them this year and they’ve been very successful. We have a couple more coming up in October. Lots of people like them and come to them, but I can’t say they produce more money or anything different. Sometimes farmers just like an outing.”

Steffes Auctioneers used a different blend of live and online-only bidding to handle a particularly large sale this spring. About 200 of the large lots and machines were sold live, while smaller items were grouped into lots, tagged with a QR code, and buyers could use their smartphones to digitally bid on them through the online-only portion of the sale website.

“We tried that and it worked great,” says LeBlanc.

“You put your phone up to that item, and it will take you right to the bids. It’s new technology. Steffes brought that in, and it’s been a good move.”

Over the three-plus decades LeBlanc has been in the auction business, he has also seen a significant change in the total earnings from a farm sale.

“When I first started, if you had a farm auction that hit over $100,000, you were doing something. Then you’d have the odd farm sale that would hit $300,000. Now we sell a Case Quadtrac for $550,000. That’s one item, and then go on to the next one. The numbers have grown so large.”

The COVID-19 pandemic also drove a lot of changes in farm auctions. Large gatherings were not permitted during that time, so online sales suddenly became the only way to conduct one.

However, COVID changed other things in the auction business as well. The number of online auction companies proliferated to take advantage of that new online business opportunity.

“Everybody got into the auction business when it became just an online format,” LeBlanc says.

“People even tried it on their own because it’s pretty simple to do. But now when the equipment is under pressure, we’re seeing prices dropping, that’s when the auction companies come into play. Who has the marketing? Who has the clientele? We started noticing that change last October and we’re really seeing it now.

“People really have to pick who they can hire for an auction because not every (company) is the same. You need to look at what they do. When COVID hit, you could sell anything. The market was just eating up anything that was available. That’s what’s changed. The companies that didn’t spend on infrastructure and marketing or build their databases up are really falling behind.”

LeBlanc garnered most of his auction experience working with a large auction firm that has a significant international footprint, but he is now leading Steffes Auctioneers’ Canadian effort as it breaks into the Prairie market, beginning in Saskatchewan.

Steffes started in North Dakota about 65 years ago and now operates in multiple U.S. states, so it’s not a newcomer to the auction business.

The company has now been conducting farm dispersals and real estate auctions for about a year on the Canadian Prairies and is also handling other heavy equipment sales here as well.

“We’re in a growth mode,” LeBlanc says.

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The urgency driving such transactions may cause ranchers, farmers and farm workers to make purchases “without taking time to properly verify or research production sources,” Alberta RCMP’s financial crimes team said in a release Thursday.

So far this year across Alberta’s Mountie-policed jurisdictions, various actors have scammed victims out of about $64,000, RCMP said, and “with many cases potentially not being reported, this figure could be higher.”

Recently, the Mounties said, fraudsters have been setting up listings for hay on social media and buy-and-sell platforms — and are “requesting immediate payment before buyers have the opportunity to research the producer, see the product, or receive delivery.”

Evansburg and Grande Prairie RCMP this summer each received similar reports of transactions on the Facebook Marketplace platform, in which “a quantity of money” was sent via e-transfer but no hay was delivered and the funds were lost.

In reported cases, lost individual deposits ranged from a minimum of $1,000 to over $5,000.

RCMP in Saskatchewan issued a warning earlier this summer about similar scams, in which several farmers sent funds in advance for hay that never materialized.

It’s worth noting, RCMP said Thursday, that the potential buyers who were able to avoid being scammed are those who “refused to give deposits in advance, insisted upon speaking on the phone, and had paid cash upon delivery of goods.”

Among the “key indicators” of a potential hay scam on an online platform, RCMP said:

• sellers will typically only communicate through text messaging and avoid phone conversations;
• while sellers can be located anywhere in the world, they get the attention of buyers by showing a specific or specialized knowledge of hay products;
• the stated price will be “attractively low” and “consistent with the previous year’s market price;” and
• the seller will often insist on a deposit of about 50 per cent, but once that deposit is received, excuses about delayed delivery may follow, “and then communication stops.”

On a more positive note, the need for hay in drought-damaged regions of the West also led to the launch this summer of several initiatives to ship donated hay from Eastern Canada.

The Canadian Federation of Agriculture’s Hay West 2021 program on Tuesday picked up a $25,000 contribution from Farm Credit Canada to help cover shipping costs for westbound feed. FCC also said it will put up another $25,000 in matching funds if the CFA is able to secure another $25,000 contribution.

Information about Hay West 2021 for farmers looking to supply or purchase hay is available online. –– Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Both outdoor ag shows hosted by Winnipeg-based Glacier FarmMedia — the owner of this website — went online in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic, with video presentations and demos, webinars and chats in lieu of in-person events and displays.

“There is still so much uncertainty in 2021, and while we are all missing in-person farm shows, we wanted to give producers something certain they could count on: timely information throughout the year,” GFM executive vice-president Lynda Tityk said Wednesday in a release.

Show attendees “told us that more frequent information provided in smaller chunks throughout the year would be most helpful for planning in 2021,” she said.

COFS and AiM each now offer online registrants a free “Digital Pass,” granting admission to six themed one-day digital events throughout the year with presentations on planting, growing, equipment, harvest, dairy and innovation topics.

Industry expert sessions and demonstrations and research and technology updates are also planned, the company said, while on-demand content will be available in between digital event days.

COFS’ first such event is scheduled for March 10, while the first online AiM event is set for March 24, the company said.

On digital event days, the two ag shows will also each host a virtual “Coffee Shop” for farmers, speakers and industry reps to gather at small “virtual tables” to ask questions and video chat in an “informal setting,” GFM said.

In non-pandemic years, Canada’s Outdoor Farm Show runs in September near Woodstock, Ont., while Ag in Motion runs in July at Glacier FarmMedia Discovery Farm near Langham, Sask., west of Saskatoon. — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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With consumers still limiting their trips outdoors due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the company said it would invest more to expand the pickup and delivery operation while aiming to reduce costs.

The move is part of a larger trend among Canadian retailers. Earlier this week, Walmart Canada said it plans to spend $3.5 billion over the next five years to strengthen its e-commerce business.

A 280 per cent surge in e-commerce sales lifted Loblaw’s revenue about 7.4 per cent to $11.96 billion in the second quarter ended June 13. That beat analysts’ estimates of $11.87 billion, according to IBES data from Refinitiv .

Adjusted net earnings fell nearly 29 per cent to $266 million, or 74 cents per share, due to employee bonuses. Analysts had expected a profit of 71 cents per share.

The company’s food retail same-stores sales rose 10 per cent in the quarter.

— Reporting for Reuters by Uday Sampath in Bangalore.

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The Livestock Market Association of Canada (LMAC) last week held an emergency meeting on how to respond to the coronavirus pandemic, and decided to follow Health Canada’s lead on limiting crowd size and encouraging social distancing and sanitation during sales.

“Certainly everybody can appreciate that we’re in the heart of our bull sale season here in Canada and it’s one of those times of year where we actually need commerce to take place between buyers and sellers,” Michael Latimer, executive director of the Canadian Beef Breeds Council, said during an online town hall outlining the beef industry’s response to the pandemic.

“I think it’s pretty clear that our leadership doesn’t want food production to shut down,” Jason Danard, vice-president at Calgary Stockyards and an LMAC director, said in an interview.

As part of the pandemic response, auction marts are encouraging people to register online to watch or bid on bull sales. During an interview, Mark Shologan, purebred sales director at online platform DLMS, said it’s seen a “major spike” in online bidding in recent days.

Danard, who’s also a principal at online platform TEAM, also noted a surge of new online registrants last week. It’s like nothing he’s seen in his 20 years of offering online sales.

A few days ago, Danard had a bull sale with Travis Foote of Footprint Farms. Foote was prepared for an online bidding, having posted video of the bulls online before the sale.

“There were bulls where the only bidding was online,” Danard said, noting most producers are familiar with online sales, and TEAM’s employees aren’t seeing any issues out of the ordinary.

He did bring in two extra people to help with tech support later in the week, he said, to deal with the influx of people registering online.

Staff aren’t seeing any major issues with the number of new registrants at DLMS either, Shologan said. He suggested producers sign up early.

Producers in rural areas should also limit the number of devices connecting to the internet, to avoid overwhelming connections during the sale.

Auction marts are also changing how they do business on-site. Last week, only employees were allowed in Calgary Stockyards’ office, and only buyers were allowed in the ring. The kitchen was also closed.

Danard was pleased to see people at the auction mart complying with the new measures. People were practicing social distancing, and only showing up at the auction mart if they had a reason to be there.

“I’m proud of how we’re responding as an industry,” he said.

However, given how quickly the situation around the pandemic is changing and how the allowable crowd size is shrinking, producers should phone sale organizers or auction marts before attending.

Shologan said it’s a good idea to call ahead anyway, to make sure the market is demanding the type of cattle a person wants to sell — or, for buyers, to confirm the types of cattle on offer.

Both Danard and Shologan have watched online sales grow over the years. They said the pandemic is not only speeding that process, but will likely shift more people online in the long term.

Shologan said he appreciates the camaraderie in the industry, and online sales don’t build camaraderie the way traditional bull sales do — but they are a great option when you can’t attend a sale in person, he added.

And while it wasn’t by design, Danard said, it turns out the industry was prepared coming into this pandemic.

— Lisa Guenther is the editor of Canadian Cattlemen.

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Called “Tudder” — a mix of dating app Tinder and udder — it lets farmers swipe right on cattle they like the look of.

They are then directed to a page on the SellMyLivestock website where they can browse more pictures and data about the animals before deciding whether to buy.

Valuable information is available on matters like milk yield and protein content, or calving potential, explained Doug Bairner, CEO of Hectare Agritech, which runs SellMyLivestock (SML) and Graindex, a U.K.-based online agritech trading platform.

“Matching livestock online is even easier than it is to match humans because there’s a huge amount of data that sits behind these wonderful animals that predicts what their offspring will be,” he said.

Launching just in time for Valentine’s Day, the makers believe Tudder is the first ever matchmaking app for livestock.

As with the human equivalent, farmers use smartphones to first choose whether they are looking for a male or female, swiping through photos — right for yes and left for no — until they find a match.

Putting data at their fingertips connects farmers from all over the country, making trading easier.

Cattle farmer and Tudder user James Bridger said it eases transport stress for animals and may rival traditional markets.

“You’ve got all this data of its background and everything which if you’re at a market you might not have had the time to go through for every single random animal,” he told Reuters in the southern English county of Hampshire.

“There’s nothing better than seeing an animal in its home, its natural habitat, rather than putting it on a lorry … if someone rings up and wants to come and have a look, or even getting it from the picture, it’s ideal really from that respect, and they’re happier for it.”

SellMyLivestock has listed over £50 million (C$85 million) of livestock, feed and bedding to sell in the last year, dispelling notions that farmers are stuck in the past, Bairner said.

“Despite the rest of the world’s view of farming, it’s actually very technologically driven,” he said, citing precision spraying, automated dairy units and genetic science.

— Reporting for Reuters by Matthew Stock.

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In what it describes as the “first and only full range” of online contracting options for farmers in Western Canada, Viterra launched its new system on its myViterra platform in December.

A Prairie grain grower with a myViterra account can use the online option to create basis, flat priced and fixed futures contracts, either on a desktop or smartphone.

The company has previously offered online target pricing, but the latest version of the system allows a producer to complete a contract “on your own time, online, 24/7,” according to Jeff Cockwill, Viterra’s director of corporate affairs.

As with the company’s online target pricing system, when a grower signs into the myViterra system, he or she has the authentication necessary to enter a binding contract.

The system, Cockwill said in an interview, is built around grain prices; a grower selects a product, searches available prices and, if an agreeable price is available, may create the online contract “right then and there.”

The online contracting system also includes tonnage limits, if need be, to keep a reasonable ceiling on the risk exposure Viterra can accept from any one myViterra account holder.

While the myViterra platform has been up and running since 2008, Viterra staff have been talking about the possibilities of a full online contracting option for about five years, Cockwill said.

Viterra’s understanding is that the option of a “full contracting suite” where a grower can go online to sell grain at a specific price for a specific month is the first of its kind on offer from a Prairie grain firm.

Kyle Jeworski, Viterra’s CEO for North America, said in a January release that initiatives such as the online contracting options “are part of our overall focus on our customers to ensure we’re acting on their feedback and aligned with their needs.”

Looking ahead, he said, “we will continue making improvements to our technology to ensure we continue to be easy to do business with.” — Glacier FarmMedia Network

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Often farmers who would like to rent more land don’t even find out about rental opportunities until the land is already off the market.

When the landowner and renter do find each other, there’s really no open, transparent way for them to set a price. Without official published numbers, farmers are reduced to getting their information about rental rates from coffee row.

Two new web services have recently come online to help farmers and landowners overcome these problems.

RentThisLand.com is an Ontario-based service that matches landowners with renters. Prairie-based Renterra.ca also matches renters with owners, using an open auction system.

RentThisLand.com

RentThisLand.com was started by Kevin Veurink and his brother Andrew. Kevin’s wife Shannon Veurink is the president of the company.

So far, more than 130 landowners have signed up on RentThisLand.com.

How it works — for renters: Potential renters start by filling out a profile for perspective tenants. Shannon Veurink says they encourage potential renters to use this profile to explain why they would be the best tenant choice. “Sometimes we look at what they’ve written and it just makes us so proud of the ag community,” Veurink says. “It’s really great to see people proud of their operations.”

When renters see land for rent on the website that might be of interest, they can submit bids to the landowner. Renters pay a nominal fee of $20 to bid (or can buy a package rate for a lower per-bid price.) If they are successful, RentThisLand.com will charge their credit card 1.5 per cent of the rental price as commission.

How it works — for landowners: There is no charge for landowners to use this site (although they can buy road signs for $34.99, to bring some extra attention to their land.) Once the site has received five bids for a piece of land, the landowners will be notified. They’ll be able to read the profiles submitted by the bidders and select a tenant.

The benefits: While receiving at least five bids for their land gives the landowner a chance to understand the market value of their land, Veurink stresses that this process is not an auction. Rather, she says, “we’re trying to encourage landowners and educate landowners that, while getting a good price for your land is important, that’s not the be all and end all.”

“In a market that is really demand driven and where there is a lot of focus on price,” Veurink says, “it can be hard for young, beginning farmers without personal connections to get a foot in the door.” In the end, she says, “We’re focused on getting the best match.”

In October 2013, RentThisLand.com won an Ontario Premier’s Innovation Award for Agri-Food Innovation Excellence. On March 5, 2014, the Veurinks will be on “Dragon’s Den,” the popular CBC TV show, looking for more investment capital for their business. If they receive money, they plan to use it to increase awareness of their service, especially in Western Canada.

From the Country Guide website: Sticky land rental rates

renterra.ca

With more landowners becoming disconnected from local farmers, Lyndon Lisitza saw an opportunity. His plans for an online land rental auction won the University of Saskatchewan’s Tech Venture Challenge in 2012. The award came with $50,000 and a year of office space at Innovation Place in Saskatoon. Now his GIS-based system is up and running. To date, there are about 2,000 users on Lisitza’s renterra.ca site — about 1,800 farmers and 200 land owners.

How it works — for renters: Farmers who want to rent land can join renterra.ca for free. Once a farmer enters his legal land location, he can choose to receive email notifications when land within a certain distance of his home quarter comes up for rent on the site. The site uses a GIS mapping system, but Lisitza says, “Typically, I’ll just give people a call.”

Once land is listed, potential renters will see relevant information about that land: the assessment value, soil class, chemical and fertilizer history and previous yield history. “I hope that I provide enough information that the people who are interested can go online and place a bid,” Lisitza says.

How it works — for landowners: The landowner can specify if the auctions will be based on a straight dollars per acre rate, or on a crop share basis.

Landowners can design the terms and conditions of the auction. Lisitza reminds them that setting an excessive amount of terms and conditions might mean fewer bidders, but in the end, that’s the owners’ decision. Lisitza will also work with the owners to set a reserve price.

Landowners don’t have to take the highest bidder. Once the auction is over, they can look at the farm profile of the winning bidder: the number of acres farmed, land rented vs. leased, machinery used and past yields. If the landowner doesn’t choose the highest bidder, he can look at the next name. Because cash rental auctions are based on one dollar per acre increments, the second highest bid will be only slightly lower.

The benefits: When land is rented in a sealed bid process, where bidders don’t know how much others are offering, Lisitza says the result will often end with a “winner’s curse” — a situation where the winning bid is substantially higher than the second highest bid. With renterra.ca’s one dollar bid increments, this won’t be a factor.

If you have enough competition, Lisitza says, which in this situation means anywhere from five to eight bidders, “what you will get is a market solution.”

After the sale closes, Lisitza says “then the real work begins.” Setting the market price “is just the first dance between the landowner and the tenant.” The next step is actually setting up the contract between the two parties. Lisitza helps them negotiate subtle aspects that can’t be captured by a website. “You really need to hammer in to the details,” he says. “You’re bridging the gap between two people who sometimes don’t know each other from a hole in the wall.”

Leeann Minogue is the editor of Grainews.

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