Clarion call for mart support

The warning comes from the Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers in Scotland (IAAS) along with a reminder that the collective experience and bidding of farmers around a ring helps ensure a fair price for buyers and sellers.

Jim Craig, managing director of Craig Wilson Auction Mart, Ayr, said: “My late father used to say that a live auction was ‘justice being seen to be done’.

“What he meant was that live sales happen in the public domain, with a group of folk around the ring acting like a jury. Experience and knowledge is pooled and the audience works its way towards the price.

“With a private sale, however, the price is inevitably based on the going market rate, that being prices established at live marts, which takes in all shapes and sizes of livestock.

“How can the seller be sure their bargaining results in the best price as the buyer will want to spend as little as he can?”