Ep 109: Peter Godbolt _ Part B

Peter Goldbolt.

In this episode, we dive into the pressure and adrenaline of sale day — where Pete can be responsible for selling millions of dollars worth of livestock in a single day.

As a Stud Stock Manager with Nutrien Ag Solutions, Pete gives a great insight into the modern stud stock world, from changing technology to the relationships that hold the industry together across Australia.

We also get a behind-the-scenes look at auctioneering itself — including the difference between being a fast or slow padder, reading a crowd, and the skill involved in keeping a sale moving.

There’s plenty of laughs in this one too, along with an honest chat about family life, long days on the road, and the balancing act that comes with working right across the country.

Hope you enjoy Part B with Peter Godbolt.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Well that the story million dollars tunnel on one day, and then obviously you're doing styles that are only 150-200, but marketing is already them all the time.

SPEAKER_00 0:21

In this episode, we talk about the pressure and adrenaline of style day, where paint can be selling millions of dollars worth of stock in just one day. We get into technology in the stock world, the importance of relationships across the country, and some behind-the-scenes auctioneering secrets, including the difference between being a fast or slow paddle. There's plenty of laugh too, along with the reality of juggling family life while constantly being on the road. Let's get into it. So with technology being so clever now, has AI come into play? And I don't mean artificial intimidation.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Uh yeah, I suppose it's it's getting stronger. Like they've all you've always been able to go into your EBVs or your ASBVs and put your um female in that you're joining, and you can actually get the identifications of say four or five bulls you're using, and you'll get a mid-parent value out of that. So that that's a technical thing that they're built in the back end. But I suppose that was AI before AI, I suppose it was, yeah, where it it is and it isn't, and it and it will it'll change our industry. I just don't know how. But um, from when I first I suppose growing up in the industry to where I am now, like you never used to have pedigrees and stuff accessible to everyone other than just the person who had them online, where I can go in now, and if I've got a login to the Angus Australia or the Herefords, I can go in there and I can type in a cow's or a bull's number and up poppy his pedigree, his date of birth, his breed plan values, all that kind of stuff. And if there's photos or videos on there, you can get them. Um if you lead into a sale like YouTube videos and stuff of bulls now, like they're some of the people that do that are absolutely outstanding in what they do when you virtually you know what you're going and looking at before you go there. Where back when I was younger, or when I first got into the agency, you actually had the ring, the vendor or the owner of the cattle or the agent to find out all that information.

SPEAKER_00 2:32

You said before your great-grandfather was in the same game. Can you imagine what he might think with all this information?

SPEAKER_01 2:37

Yeah, so he my great-great-grandfather, he was uh well my great-grandfather, he was like mainly in the dairy space originally and then worked with some Brahmins and some Charolas originally. Like I reckon he's especially in the dairy side of things, of how much that's changed, would he be blown away.

SPEAKER_00 2:54

Yeah. In your position, mate, I guess relationships would be key?

SPEAKER_01 2:58

Yeah, they are big time. Um, because my clients are over a wide area. Um, yes, got colleagues that work within our area as well. So we sort of break up Victoria and uh southern New South Wales between the three of us that work in that area. One does sort of Gippsland and up into the hills a fair bit, and I do sort of northern Victoria, down through central Victoria and into Gippsland a little bit, and cover what the other fella does on that side as well. And then we've got a guy that does that sort of bending go on western space and down into the western districts, but we all cross over, but that's your sort of main area, you sort of focus on. Like you're the key contact for that area, you're the one that drive the business and get us new business. And but then because I've got clients that I sell for way down at Hamilton and stuff, like I'm not down there all the time, so you've got to have that relationship, you've got to know that they'll ring you when they need to ring you. You'll be in contact with them when you need to be, and a lot of it's done over the phone, and you've got you've you've built that trust over years, and even turning around. Like, I've got clients coming down from northern New South Wales that trust me pretty well that are coming down this week for the Hereford show and sale, and like you've got them all over the countryside. Like we did a trip with Nutrion, uh, I suppose five or six years ago over to WA. There was two of us from Victoria, two from South Australia, and one from Queensland. We jumped in the car together and was organised by the fellows in WA because they sort of seen that they it was going to be relaxed a little bit to get cattle back and forth in and out of WA a lot easier and stuff like that. So they wanted to get us some relationships that we could get over there, other agents, clients of theirs, and so like I get people from WA ring me about bulls and stuff like that. So it's it's a huge part in our in our business. Like I've got lifelong friends that are clients of mine, and I wasn't mostly friends with them before I started doing this job. So they're they're mates, but you also do their work. I've got fellows that we've been mates of mine from when I grew up in the stunt industry as a young kid showing cattle that I sell stock for now. So it's virtually like another family, really. You've got clients that you go and have a beer with as a mate as well as doing their work, and then you've got clients that are just clients that you deal with.

SPEAKER_00 5:03

Yeah. Is there one memorable sale or moment?

SPEAKER_01 5:07

Uh yeah, I suppose I've had a few. I was pretty lucky. I've when I first came down here, I I had some very good mentors, like Ray Atwell, my boss, that passed away just over 12 months ago. Like he'd been in the business for 64 years, so I was very lucky I could work underneath him. And um that's Ray Atwell. And then um Kevin Norris, when I first came down, like he would be known as one of the best auctioneers in Australia. He came across from New Zealand originally, so I was very lucky to deal with Kevin as well. And even if you go back into back when I worked for Steve Hayward, like the knowledge that he had over multiple breeds of cattle and stuff, like he taught me a lot about the Boss Indicus breed and all that when I was up there. And Cameron Wilson, when I first started in Gunada with elders, like he was a very strong mentor mentor, like he was a very hard man, but he was very, very fair at the same time. Like you had to do your work, and I remember after being there for sort of four or five weeks when I went to Gunnar, he sort of started to say to me, Well, you're gonna start getting your own clients now, so you need to know, like when you go and buy stuff for them, like what cattle weigh, and because they're not all pre-weighed up there, like they a lot of the time they are down here. So you sort of you buy them, you might say pay back in those days $1,200 for them, and you say they they weigh 350 kilos and they get them home and they weigh them, they're only 300. Well, it's cost them a lot of money. So he used to set the task for me of a Tuesday morning before we started, we'd finish drafting and we'd go and have breakfast and we'd go back over and we'd be about to start, we'd sell at say 1030, and I'd have to go through our whole draft of wieners in the yards and give them a weight and a price, what I think they're gonna be they're gonna make. And sort of he'd give you a rodeo, you've got to be within a certain field, and if you're outside of that, he sort of gave you a bit of a kick up the ass, which was good because like you'd you'd have two pens of cattle next to each other and they look exactly the same, but one one lot of cattle come off the good side of Gunnar in the really strong country, and one had come off the poorer, sort of sticky country, and they'd look like they weigh the same, but they actually don't weigh the same. Right. And that's what he'd sort of say you've got to you've got to learn where your areas in your country are, which are the strong ones, which has got high profile country, which has got least profile country. Because if you go to Dubbo and buying cattle and you go, Oh, these are gonna weigh, and they don't weigh because of where they've come off, or they've had a really big curfew by the time they got in there, especially Dubbo when you buy store cattle if they come from right out west. They could have been on a truck for 10-12 hours and locked up in the cattle yards before they got on the truck for a day, day and a half. So they've had a huge curfew. Yeah, your client gets them home, lets them out for a week, brings them in and weighs them, and they weigh much heavier than you think they were. So there's there's counteracts to what it was, but yeah, I was very, very lucky that I've um had some really good mentors to sort of work with within in my period of short time of being in the business.

SPEAKER_00 7:45

Your clients have a big lead up to sale day, they put a lot of trust in you. How does that feel?

SPEAKER_01 7:52

Uh stressful at times, but it's it's rewarding too because you know they've um they've put a lot of trust in you to obviously as an auctioneer to be right, to be able to get up there and sell them, know the product, be fit, ready to go, voice quality, obviously. Um, have all your gear, have all your stuff that you need for the day, whether they're people to be pushing bulls up into the sale ring. That even though we do less of them now down here, we do a lot of video sales, your office stuff, your bid spotters, and all that kind of stuff. Like they put a lot of trust in you to make sure you've got all that sorted and on the ground. And obviously, the flip side of that, they put a lot of time and effort into you, and they've hoped that you've done the right thing and promoted the stock to clients of your own or people that ring you up from seeing videos or seeing it on auctions plus online or whatever to find out the background of the program. And uh the best vendors that I find are the ones that do a lot for themselves too and promote their own product, the ones that are on the road and the ones that are doing the work, making phone calls, and they've got half or three-quarters of them sold before I even need to start the sell one, but you're still trying to sell the whole lot of them. But you know they've they've done their part of the coin too.

SPEAKER_00 9:00

But these days we we could be talking, and I have no idea, but you might have sold a hundred, two hundred thousand, half a million dollars worth of stock in a day.

SPEAKER_01 9:09

Yeah, definitely. Like we do sales. Um, I suppose the biggest sale we've done since I've been keeping the records of taking over the stud stock manager, we've done a three million dollar sale on one day. And then obviously you do sales that are only 150, 200. But my thing is I treat them all the same because the guy that you're selling three million dollars worth of stock for at the moment, he might have been a $150, $200 sale when he first started. He or she, they've worked their way up within their program and they're built from being a little program now into a big one. And obviously, numbers plays a big part in like when I say numbers, like they might have started selling 40 bulls, now they're selling 150, 200 in one day. So they've obviously grown their client clientele as they've gone, but that pays a big part into being able to get a big gross.

SPEAKER_00 9:54

And tell me about auctioneering, mate. It must get exciting that the adrenaline would get flowing.

SPEAKER_01 9:59

Yeah, it does, uh very much so.

SPEAKER_00 10:01

Um I've seen you up there.

SPEAKER_01 10:03

Yeah, yeah. It's it's pretty daunting space to be at times, really, if you look back on it, like for especially when I first started. Like you you said earlier, like um the highlights of mine, I suppose, was working with those key people. But in my second, second or third sale I ever did, we did a um dispersal down in the western districts, and I sold the top price FEMA, which was 45,000, and it was the record at the time. Like, it's pretty daunting when you you hear people talking before you get up there to sell their stock that the there's cattle in your run that could potentially make a bit of money, and you're gonna get up there and try and get this out of these people, like to get the best result for your client on the day. So I suppose in that aspect, like I suppose I got up there and I was shitting myself really on that day because it was my third or fourth lot into my run, and you'd just settled in, and it's second or third time of actually selling stud cattle, like it's a bit of pressure, but like I suppose I get up now and I've got nerves, but I don't have nerves like I used to back then.

SPEAKER_00 11:01

Well, you don't seem to. I've I've seen you up there, and the pace of it is crazy. And you're delivering all this information bang, bang, bang. Yep. Fifty thousand dollars here, next one bang. In Yep. You've got to do a lot of homework.

SPEAKER_01 11:14

And I I think when you get to sales and people that maybe don't know what we do as auctioneers, they don't realise actually how much time and effort you've got to put into doing your knowledge, your your pedigree backgrounds and which animals, your high data animals, you highlight your catalogue so they they stand out for you in your catalogues. Like if people look into our catalogues, that they'd go to a sale and it'd just be black and white for them with an odd photo in it, and now's they've got highlighter in it and good points and bad points. Like, so you don't just you you don't want to say the bad points, so you've got to make sure that you're not accidentally rubbed a little bit of highlighter on there or something, and you accidentally blurted it out, and it's not something you should be saying. So, and then but you've got to you've got to be careful at the same time, and I don't want to give away too many tricks of what I actually do, but I never write anything negative in my catalogue, but I may have things that are in my catalogue that I know is something that that bull's maybe not or that ram's not as strong in that area, so you don't want to allude to it. So when you when you do your description of the animal, like well foot, I suppose if you want to say he's what he's weak spine. Yeah, so instead of actually writing that in your book, in case the vendor sees it, or someone that's wants to buy that bull picks up your catalogue by accident or looks over your shoulder, they don't actually see that you've got weak spine in there. You might have a number or something in there that you know reverts back to something that you don't want to say, but not you don't actually just have in your catalogue good and bad points. You might have that it's a donor cow or this this bull actually made 200,000 when he was sold, or you might actually been looking through the pens or standing there talking to people and you're actually surveying the crowd as they're walking around. And you I might have say on lot three, Darren Grigg written there because you know he had a very big inspection on that. He's rang me about it beforehand. So when you get to that lot, you see Darren Grigg's name there, you know where he is in the stand. So you've got half an eye on Darren before you even know what's going on. I suppose you've got to know that you can you can get a feel from the crowd before they're even gonna bid. People have got tell sale signs and stuff like that. They check their buyer number of two or three lots beforehand, or they get a little bit nervous and wriggly in their chair, or they might have a big in-depth conversation with their manager or owner that's standing next to them, or their wife, or uh business partner. Like there's tell signs as you're up the front, and um I'm sure even most auctioneers will be able to tell you that spotters at the front. You can you can virtually tell when someone's gonna bid before they do. You've got to work out what people's budgets are, especially in the high booming sale. Like if you've got three or four people that are all after the same sort of article, whether it's the same bull or the same ram, and you know this guy's got a thousand dollars and he's got twelve twelve hundred dollars for a ram and he's got fourteen hundred, and they all put their hand up at the same time. You don't want to put the guy that's fourteen hundred dollars in first, you've got to be able to go bang, bang, bang, and land doll made on fourteen hundred dollars or fourteen thousand if it's a bull. So you've got to you've got to be switched on when you're selling. Yeah, you can't sort of have a dull moment in there, but it is fast-paced, and I enjoy it, and I mainly enjoy it because a lot of people in mostly tell you they enjoy auctioneering, especially in the stud world, because they may be able to sell a $100,000 bull of female back in the day, but you're getting up to two and two hundred and fifty thousand now for them and stuff like that. Like as good as that is, it's it's good to be able to do that. But I like to know when you step up the rostrum at the end of the day that you've done everything you can to get the best price for every single animal in the sale, not the highlight bull in the sale or the highlight female, because that's gonna make what it's gonna make. It's to maybe draw an extra bit out of someone else on the last in the last 10 or 12 lots and go, I just made another thousand or another two thousand dollars from a vendor today. Like, and they hopefully they've seen that and hopefully they know that you've put that extra mile in and that extra little bit of effort, whether it's talking to the guy or lady when they're bidding on them, or whether you've done a little bit of homework and you go four generations back into the pedigree and you mention this, and the person out the front goes, Oh yeah, I remember that, I'll have one more, or whatever. Or they're buying five or six bulls for the day, and you know they've got one a little bit cheaper, and you know it's well within their budget, and you might just say, 'Oh, you you got one cheaper earlier, you can have an extra one here, or whatever. Like there's there's always ways to get them to try and get more money out of them. Because the last thing you want to do as the auctioneer is walk off their ostrum and feel like you've had a crap day. Yeah. Because it's it's like you say it's a stud breeder, it could be could be 50% to 75% of their income for the year, and it all happens on one day or maybe two days of the year if they have two sales. So if you have a poor day and you don't put in 110%, oh the pressure, you walk off there feeling pretty ordinary. Yeah, and it's it's hard to go and have that conversation with them at the end of the sale or a couple of days later when you have a debrief with them.

SPEAKER_00 15:54

So well, I feel like we're more. I've just got some tips and tricks out of you just thinking.

SPEAKER_01 15:58

Yeah, there is there, there is tips and tricks, and people know them.

SPEAKER_00 16:01

So if there was one thing you would say to a young auctioneer, would it be do your homework?

SPEAKER_01 16:08

Yeah, definitely, do your homework. What else would I say to them? I said practice makes perfect, and I know everyone tells you tells you that. Listen to your vendors and what they want out of you on the day. Like you might be, for instance, not all the time, you're the sole auctioneer. Like, you might be a lot of the time if we're in conjunctional sales, say with elders, it you're normally just whoever's settling the sale, which you take years, elders might start, you might have to come on second, and you've got to talk to your talk to your vendor and say, Rodeo, this is where I'm thinking of coming in. Because not, it might necessarily say 50 balls, he does 25, you do 25. You don't want to start on a average one, you want to start on a better one so you get a good start when you change over, and they might want you to start here, and you might have to have a conversation with them and say, Well, can I start one before or one after? or and you've got to have the relationship with your other auctioneer, and they and there's times where we have soul sales, and I sell with um Tim Woodham or Nick Farley, and you just I just say to them, Rodio, I'll do roughly 30. You go out in the pens and you find one you like to start on. Because there's there's nothing worse than changing over and have to sell something that you're not solely invested in. When I say you're not solely invested in it, you might like the next one better. So why not start on the one you like and a little bit better in your own head than have to get up and try and sell the story on your first bull? Because you're if you're a little bit nervous or whatever, that's where you'll you'll do a bad job.

SPEAKER_00 17:32

You can choose to what order they can. Yeah, you can.

SPEAKER_01 17:34

Yeah, you can't swap the sale order or anything, but like like you say, if if there's 50 in there and I say we'll do 25 each, and you're meant to start on 26. And you're not you like 27 better or you like 25 better. I just say Don, you tell me which one you want to start on because you start on one you like and one you can promote to the best of your ability and get that nervous system out of your job, and then you bang your away into the rest of them. Yeah. And I'm not saying they hate the next one they're gonna sell the one they were meant to sell, they just like another one better, it might be better car because it might be better numbered. You you might know that you've got it covered with a client of your own, so you're happy to start on that one, and you know it's you know it's gonna do. But yeah, practice this and and take stuff off some other auctioneers and mold it into your own style that suits you. Because I suppose I've got equipped pretty quick, what we call a patter, and then you've got other people that have a slower patter, you have people that have a lot of fuel, you have people that don't have as much fuel with them when they sell, so they might just sort of say the numbers and not say other stuff into words to fill your sentence out as you're selling away. So it's when I say your patter, when you're selling, so when we when we're saying if you're um saying 2,000, 3000, 4,000, that's your patter.

SPEAKER_00 18:40

Oh, yeah.

SPEAKER_01 18:41

And you and when we say your fill, you might say like like dollars or I have the bid over here or whatever. So some people's patter is very quick, some is slower because it's just natural and what feels com natural for them. So don't go, I would say to the young auctioneers that are coming through the thing at the moment, you might go to your local sale yards on a Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday or whatever, and you go, that's the auctioneer I want to be, and pick the which one you think's the best. And then you get up there and you can't go the speed he goes with his patterns. So you gotta you've got to adjust. You might take stuff out of what he does and adjust it to the way you do it yourself.

SPEAKER_00 19:16

So I'd say you're quite a fast pattern? Yeah, I do have a fast pattern, yeah. Yeah. I'm gonna play a bit of audio here. You've got a young family at home. How do you juggle the demands of managing livestock and a busy career with being a parent?

SPEAKER_01 19:42

It's the worst part of my job. Which juggling and family and not being there when they need you and missing out on kids' sport or first day of school. I've been pretty lucky. I did see both my daughters go to school, but I know like in our job, that's that's what it is. Like it's not a nine-to-five job. It could be, I could be on the phone still at 10 or 11 o'clock at night, even when I am home. So that's hard on the kids. And I've got a wife that's very, very understanding and grew up within the industry, so she knows what it's like and knows what to expect. But there has been times where it's been very hard on there. I know, for instance, I'd been away and I'd done a sale, and I think I left at about 6.30 that morning. I got home at 9, 10 o'clock that night, and we'd only just had Lucy. I got met at the door coming in the garage saying it's yours, it's your turn. And I'm like, I've got to be back on the road again at 6 30, and you're giving me this thing that we created, and I've got to deal with it for a little while. But you got it. You just gotta, I suppose, the old saying, pony up and do what you need to do and get through that and hope you get a decent bit of sleep so you can be back on the road again and fresh as you can. But I am lucky that, like, like I say, I've got her that understands, and I've got two kids that pretty well understand. Like, I think now I can I can leave and that and Lucy mightn't even know I've gone. Emma's still sort of getting a bit used to it when I tell her I'm going for a week and go on Monday, won't be home on Friday. Like, she gets a little bit emotional and upset at times, but um that's that's part of it, and she understands why I've got to do it. And but yeah, it's it's good to be able to get home and have a bit of switch-off time.

SPEAKER_00 21:18

So you've got uh two beautiful girls, actually three, Nat. Sorry about that. And that's your dear wife. Um do you think Lucy or Emma might follow in your footsteps?

SPEAKER_01 21:30

Well, Lucy's very, very interested in the agricultural space. I'm not saying she'll become an agent one day, but I think she'll stay within the agricultural space somewhere at the moment, in year aid at Walla at St. Paul's there at school, and uh went out there with the ag scholarship.

SPEAKER_00 21:45

So she's a very clever girl.

SPEAKER_01 21:47

Yeah, she is, and yeah, very, very keen on the industry and very keen on showing at the moment. Like I was at that age, it was all about getting out there and showing and judging and going to well, there weren't as many sort of junior heifer shows and stuff as. We call them these days that you take your kids to and they learn off other industry people and get to judge and show the cattle and represent themselves to the best of their ability. Like they they were around, but not to the sort of height and style and prestige they are now. We mainly just went to Melbourne or Sydney and stuff and got with your mates and done things you shouldn't have done.

SPEAKER_00 22:22

I can definitely see Lucy in the ag industry. And I've actually been wanting to ask you, do you think she'd be a guest? She's 13. Do you think she'd be a guest on the Salt of the Earth farm stories?

SPEAKER_01 22:33

I think she'd love to be one of your guests on your side of the earth.

SPEAKER_00 22:36

She'd be my youngest and uh would love to have Lucy on. Right, Pete, we're up to the off-the-wall questions. This is the fun part.

SPEAKER_03 22:44

Yep.

SPEAKER_00 22:44

They can be short answers. You can answer as many as you like. Have a swig. Get ready for these. If you weren't working with livestock, what do you think you'd be doing?

SPEAKER_01 22:53

Well, I suppose I answered this earlier. My dream job, if I wasn't working with livestock, would be to be an architect. And like I said, I wanted to be a chef or a baker before that. And I suppose one of the reasons I ran away from that and more went to the architect side of it was because I liked the in and the detail of drawing and designing houses and stuff for buildings and stuff like that. But was the early hours and late nights with what sort of drew me away from being a baker or a or a chef. And I suppose I mostly ended up straight back there because I can leave at six and be home at 10 or 11 o'clock at night if I do a day's trip around and back or whatever, or yeah, go on early, get back and out late with kids doing sport and then try and do a bit of paperwork after that. So I didn't avoid that in one way, shape, or form anyway.

SPEAKER_00 23:40

Well, I know you can make some pretty mean wristles. I've experienced those. Yeah, the wristles are pretty good. Let's say you're auctioning a bull and you're close to the 100k mark. What do you think that bull would say to you?

SPEAKER_01 23:52

Well, I had a look at this question when you gave it to me the other day, and I'd better not say what I said first. Um, but I'll say it in a in a good way. I think you'd be saying, Come on, mate, I'm worth more than that.

SPEAKER_00 24:03

There's a few middle boy exploits in there on the first version. Well there's something like let me out to those girls. Yeah, it could be too. Yeah. Yeah. So you're on the road constantly. Have you got a favourite playlist or podcast, mate?

SPEAKER_01 24:16

Well, I never used to. I'm not big into music, so like I might have the radio on in the background, just have a little bit of noise. But I suppose when we travel, we're on the phone a lot these days. It's mostly the best invention that ever happened for a stock agent um mobile phone, rather than having to come home and make all your phone calls when you get home from a day or at your motel. But I was going through Melbourne one night and yourself had talked about your podcast a lot, and I hit some uh an accident on the highway and had to get diverted out. And I was going down to um, I think I was going to Bansdale off the top of my head to stay. And it was about nine o'clock when I hit this accident just on the outskirts of Melbourne and got diverted and didn't know where I was going. And I'm like, I'm getting tired, I've got to find something to fill in here because I had to be at Bansdale early, so I'd mostly didn't have the option of pulling up and going. So I'm like, oh, Darren always tells me about his podcast. So I actually got on it, and I think by the time I got to Bansdale, I'd listen to 11 or 12 of your podcasts at that time, and then I was hooked and I can't wait till Friday. I suppose that's given you a fair plug, and all your listeners know that anyway. But it is my go-to on a Friday. Um, sometimes I bank them up if I'm a bit quieter, I won't listen to them if I'm at home. I'll leave them for when I'm in the car. But yeah, I that and I do listen to a few sport podcasts, and if I'm in earshot of Melbourne, 1116 is pretty well on the radio.

SPEAKER_00 25:38

Right. Well, mate, I'll be editing this and I won't be taking that bit out, so thanks very much for that. If you had to pick one animal, sheep, cow, or any other, what would you say has the most personality?

SPEAKER_01 25:48

They mostly all have some personality. Um, sheep can be dumb at times. Cows got their unique personality, um, but I suppose I've I've always liked dogs and they have a fair personality and they're loyal, they they love you to death. Like I've got a chocolate lab over home, and yeah, it barks at people when it walks back walk past the backyard, but I reckon if they come over to the gate and open it, it'd lick them to death. So um, yeah, mostly dogs, but I do, I do love the animals I work with, like sheep, cattle, and sold a few owl packers over the time. I don't know a lot about them, but it'll put up and auctioneered them and they're quite interesting.

SPEAKER_00 26:23

Yeah, they're if you could host a livestock themed dinner party, which two historical figures or famous farmers, living or not, would you invite?

SPEAKER_01 26:33

Yeah, this I had a look at this one too, where obviously you got a little sneaky in peak to off-the-wall questions, and um I suppose they're not really historical figures to a lot of people, but um I've mentioned a couple of them earlier in the in the podcast. Like I'd love to be able to have another meal or a just a bit of banner and a bit of for those of that know Ray At well, he he loved to joke and loved to play, and he's played such a big part of my life and uh only losing him just over 12 months ago.

SPEAKER_00 27:03

Now he'd be very proud of you.

SPEAKER_01 27:05

Yeah, yeah, definitely. I reckon that. He sort of poached me out of where I was with elders and brought me down here and sort of primed me up. He most probably told me that I was going to take his job over before I even wanted to do it. Um and for the couple of years where he'd retired and I'd ring him regularly just for a chat and see what's going on and just to be able to ask him questions about a tricky question or a tricky situation he'd been put into because 64 years of knowledge is pretty you've seen most things, if not everything. So I definitely want him there, and I was pretty close to my grandfather, especially late in life. He lived in Albury when he retired and don't have family in this area, so I got pretty close with him and um was very close with him when he was sort of battling the back end of his cancer and stuff. And I was there. I wasn't there when he passed away because his son and daughters and that were there. But I was I was in there the week leading up into there, and sort of the nurse came in and sort of said it's not gonna be that long. So I was sort of one of the ones that had to deliver a few of those phone calls to everyone to get in, like dad and stuff.

SPEAKER_00 28:08

So but well, with those two people, mate, it'd be good to be the one just sitting there listening to those two talk.

SPEAKER_01 28:13

Yeah, and they both know each other too, so it'd be perfect as well. Because Pop was well, he he actually to fill in the story. Dad managed Carper and then Pop went there after when dad when Dad left to go down to Sharnock at Lansfield. So they both actually manage the same stud within one after the other, bang bang. So yeah, but there's there'd be lots of people that I could put in there, but I think they'd be the two go-to.

SPEAKER_00 28:36

Well, they're probably up there now, mate, looking down on you going, giving each other high fives, going, look how good he's doing. Yeah, maybe hopefully, hopefully I'm mad and proud. What's the strangest or most unexpected thing that's ever happened to you during an auction?

SPEAKER_01 28:48

Uh right, yeah, technology. It can be your best friend, it can be your worst friend. We were at mostly one of our biggest sales that I do for the year, and not far from here, and not blaming auctions plus, but um, we were running alongside them, and the system had a little bit of a malfunction when we got to lot three. I wasn't selling at the time, I was standing next to them, but it was just they they did an upgrade and something didn't work properly. We got through three lots and it died, and we had to sort of hold the sale for 30 minutes trying to get them back up in line because we had a hundred odd people online. Like you don't know if all of them are bidding, but they were on there, and you're trying to do the right thing by the people that actually made me the time to come to the sale and be there as well. Like, you didn't want to hold them up longer than they had to because they they have to get home at the end of the sale at the end of the day as well. Like, um, just trying to work out what we did. Do we charge ahead? Do we the poor people online will they miss out? And is that the best thing for your client, or do you wait? So we sort of come up with the thing of waiting half an hour and seeing what auction spice could do in that time and got all the contact numbers off all the people online, and we had people ringing them to say, if we can't get this back up and running, you're gonna have to try and buy them over the phone. And every sort of sale you do, something will happen that you're trying to fix as you're selling at the same time, or you might be next to the person that's selling doing the book and you're you're trying to fix things. I'm not saying it's every single sale, but they'd you'd have one of them a week where you have where you've got to come up with something on the fly. But that's mostly one of the high profile sale. A lot of people online and a lot normally have a lot of tick uh activity online there. So you you were shitting bullets if you get that right.

SPEAKER_00 30:29

So yeah. If you could swap lives with an animal for the day, which one would you choose? And what would you do?

SPEAKER_01 30:38

Uh, don't know really. Um I suppose, like I said earlier, dogs have a pretty good life. I I love my cattle because I've been around them all my life. But um, yeah, I really don't know the answer to that. Mostly something unique and something that someone would like to come and see for the day.

SPEAKER_00 30:54

Well, the bull's got a pretty good job.

SPEAKER_01 30:56

Yeah, they do have a pretty good job, yeah. But a short, short time period these days, like a short, quick six-week joining. Sit around a lot of time.

SPEAKER_00 31:04

What's the most unusual or surprising piece of advice you've ever received in the livestock industry?

SPEAKER_01 31:10

Well, it's not really unique, but back yourself and back your knowledge and back your tools that you have, I suppose, being an auctioneer, especially. That'd be mostly advice I've gotten, advice I'd pass on to people that want to be an auctioneer. Or not, you don't even have to be an auctioneer. People think the auctioneer is the be all and end all at a sale, and they are because they're the one that's conducting it and running it. But there's that many people that are there, like your bid spotters, if they're no good and they're missing bids, you're only as good as they are, because you can't be looking at every single person there at 180 degrees around you. Some sales they could be even standing behind you, you can't even see them, so you rely on a lot of people. And but back yourself and back that you've got the support team around you would mostly be some advice that well Ray Atwell gave to me originally. Like you you you got your knowledge and you got your support staff, and you're you're very good at what you do, so yeah, just back yourself.

SPEAKER_00 32:01

And one last question if you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?

SPEAKER_01 32:05

Uh well, I'm pretty lucky. I travel around a fair bit of Australia. I haven't been outside of Australia, so I can't sort of never? No, never. Really? Unless you count Tasmania, but yeah, yeah, that's the only time I've ever flown over water to get there. But that's Australia in my mind, but lots of people say that it's not. Yeah, I've never been never been overseas anywhere, so I'm lucky I get to travel around, I get to see a lot of places, but I suppose this is cliche answer. But as as long as my three girls are with me, it wouldn't really worry me where I live. But Albury with Donger is a good spot. It's it's got most things, but yeah, as long as as long as I've got family with me, that'd I'm happy.

SPEAKER_00 32:43

Well said, mate. And I do appreciate you travelling this far today to come and talk to me.

SPEAKER_01 32:48

Yeah, for the whole 25 steps from next door.

SPEAKER_00 32:51

So just for our listeners, we're next door neighbours. Thank you, mate. Well, Pete, um, this has been a really fascinating chat. I've learned stacks, and you're very highly respected in the industry, and I'm really lucky to have this time with you, mate.

SPEAKER_01 33:06

No, it's a pleasure. Like I say, I'm a big believer of what you're doing and trying to promote different aspects. Like, there's podcasts of yours that I've listened to, and I'm like, whoa, I didn't even know anything about that. And some of them are like, I wish they went longer and um more in depth, and some of them are a little bit over my head. But um, yeah, it's been great to be a guest of yours and be on your podcast. And I hope people enjoy what we've done today. And um, I look forward to seeing many more of your podcasts come thro through my uh radio as I drive around the countryside.

SPEAKER_00 33:37

Uh that's awesome, mate. Thanks very much. Cool here. That wraps up Part B with Peter Godwell. A huge thanks to Pete for not only his knowledge of livestock and auctioneering, but also the stories, humour, and passion that comes with life in agriculture. If you enjoyed this episode, make sure you follow Totally Earth Found stories and share it with someone else who loves rural Australia and the people behind it. In the meantime, keep your hands dirty and your spirit high.