Online Livestock Auctions Demystified - with Carol and Becky of W2 Auction Solutions

📣 Horns N Hooves are back with another auction - Mother's Day Sale, May 10th. More details to follow!

Ever wondered how online livestock auctions actually work - and whether to trust them? Lori and Taylor sit down with Carol and Becky from Willoughby and W2 Auction Solutions to pull back the curtain on the online auction world. From reserves and racehorse-style bidding to bidder anonymity and fair market value, this episode cuts through the noise and the Facebook drama.

Key Takeaways

Online auctions create a level playing field for buyers and sellers. 

Reserves and floors are not the same thing - knowing the difference matters. 

Racehorse-style bidding benefits both buyers and sellers. 

Bidder anonymity protects everyone and is standard practice across all auction types. 

Auction results across different farms cannot be directly compared - genetics, registration, and marketing all affect price.

Episode Highlights

Carol explains how W2 Auction Solutions went from live shows to pioneering online livestock sales in 2006. 

The team breaks down racehorse-style vs. staggered-ending auctions and why livestock sellers prefer it. 

Lori and Carol tackle the Facebook misconceptions around shill bidding and fake prices. 

Becky and the hosts discuss why even smaller breeders benefit from using auction software.

Timestamps

00:00 — Welcome back and guest introductions 

01:14 — How W2 Auction Solutions was born 

04:00 — Why online auctions cut out the time-wasters 

07:44 — Racehorse-style vs. staggered ending auctions 

09:03 — Reserves, floors, and fair market value explained 

10:25 — The truth about bidder anonymity 

17:39 — Misconceptions and the online auction learning curve 

25:06 — Can you compare prices across different auctions? 

30:00 — Building your brand before you sell

Follow Us

Follow us on social media so you don't miss out on any advice, auction updates, or crazy farm stories!

Find us on Facebook: Horns N Hooves 

Instagram: @hornsnhoovesauctionpodcast 

TikTok: @Hornsnhoovespodcast 

Website: hornsnhoovesauction.com

Production Credit: Edited and produced by @the32collective_ / https://www.the32collective.co/

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:05

Hey everybody, welcome back to Horns and Hooves Podcasts. We have a couple special guests here today. We haven't been on for a while. We took a little bit of a break, but we're back to recording and we're starting it off with an awesome topic. We are here with special guests today. We have Carol and Becky. Carol is the owner of Willoughby. Becky is also with W2 Auctions. And I will let them introduce themselves and let and how they got started with this. Carol, you own the software behind the auction. How did that come about?

SPEAKER_00 0:41

So I'm gonna give you the really abridged version of this, or the whole podcast will be about our history because we've been doing this since the early 90s. But my husband and I always call this as a hobby that ran amok. We were in the show animal industry. I showed horses, he showed cattle. Together when college we started showing sheep. So we quickly learned that we were able to trade more and do more and help more people by becoming the middleman, right? So Dan got his uh auctioneer's license and we started doing live sales all the way all across the country. And we do some of the largest sales across the nation annually. Actually, we're getting ready to take off tomorrow morning, bright and early. Oklahoma. Yeah. We also determined we were started online sales in 2006, and we were one of the first to do that. And so if you ever get on the Willoughby site itself, it'll say where it all began. And that's because we started showcasing, had to do a lot of talk about hey, hey, we're the eBay of the show animals. I get everybody all excited and jazzed up, right? Well, one of the things we quickly learned was what we liked about software and what we didn't like about software that we were renting. We've always been very entrepreneurial. So out of that, we established W-2 Auction Solutions and created our own software. We have utilized that in all realms of the livestock industry, whether that be cattle, sheep, hogs, mini cattle, llamas, rabbits. You raise it and you show it, we can probably sell it. So that's the case of that. We also, through W 2 Auction Solutions, others utilize our software. So you can participate with us by being a part of the Willoughby Sales family, or you can participate with us by becoming a client of W-2 Auction Solutions. And sometimes that means we actually are leasing our software to competitors. So that is a win-win for multiple reasons. One reason is obviously financial, but the other reason it gets people very comfortable with the platform that they are using. So if you log on with one of our competitors, but you already know what to do, you're already comfortable. And that makes you comfortable to be able to participate across the board with anybody who is using license option software. Awesome.

SPEAKER_01 2:38

If you have questions, you can tell me now. And that's where Becky comes in. So I reached out to Becky last year. It's been almost a year. Yeah, it has been. Yeah, we need to get busy on doing sales. But I reached out to uh Becky about a year ago, and I just absolutely love her. She's great, she's great with questions. She is on the sales side of it, like Carol just stated. Maybe not necessarily we are competitors, but it's the on the sales side. And Becky, how did you come into this?

SPEAKER_02 3:11

I started work for Dan and Carol, I think this is my 13th year this summer, helping with the Willoughby sales side of it. And then during that time is when the software was developed, and I shifted from the customer support on the Willoughby side to sales and customer support on the auction software. And it's been seven years now that we've had the software. So I shifted from one to the other and seamlessly, I feel, because it's a great product. So I help lease the software like to you guys and other farms and companies that use it. So I'm the main point of contact for all the software users.

SPEAKER_03 3:48

You're fantastic at it, too, by the way. Yes.

SPEAKER_01 3:52

And like for us, we know the reason why we want to use a platform like this. For us, we use the platform because it cuts a lot of the questions. Um, in the MIDI crossbreed world, we could put what size the parents are, we can show the pictures of the parents, we can state if they're chondro or they're non-chondro, and give a little bit of information and history on that animal. And it saves a hundred phone calls or better of answering those questions.

SPEAKER_03 4:22

Right. Yeah. All the information's there. And it says it's online. It literally is anyone can bid on it, right? Yeah. It's all over, easy access, easy to get all the information right there in front of you. That's the great part about the software for sure.

SPEAKER_00 4:36

And I will say, from a personal perspective, is backed by once again, 30 years of experience. There isn't a question of our validity and what we do and how we operate. There isn't a question about is this really a company or not? There's a lot of things that just appear. They come up on the horizon. And they're they're good ideas on the surface, but they haven't gone through all the background where they actually understand that there's law regarding auctions. So you need to be licensed and bonded. You need to be able to be fairly transparent about everything that you do. That part of it, I think, comes with working with a company who has longevity and experience. And then that also comes with having an individual who knows your software inside and out and can say, yeah, that's doable. We can do that for you. Or no, we're probably not for you. That's not what we can do.

SPEAKER_01 5:21

That's awesome. So, what do you guys believe is the value of having an online auction?

SPEAKER_02 5:28

Like you said, it just cuts out that the tire kickers, if you will. I know, and I kind of go back to this. One of our first cattle people that started using it for themselves four years ago, almost five years ago, was because they were doing bid board. And I'm not sure if you're familiar with that, where like somebody calls a bid and then somebody else will call an outbid, then it's all done by phone, and then you have to like circle back and recall these people and say, oh, this person bid this much until it's sold, or until you say it's sold. So it would be like an hours or days process. So I think the frustration of having to do that tedious work set him to try it one time and has been on board for the last four almost five years. So I think that you hit the nail on the head when you like life, just got a little bit easy. You put all the information online that describes the fire, the damn, all the information on there so people can see it up front. And then I think you're now reaching the people who are truly interested versus tire kickers that are just trying to get a deal, maybe. Yep. But the value of that animal truly is. It just takes two people to want it to create an auction now. So I think that's kind of the part that I enjoy most is your life just got easier because you have a product now that is the longevity of it, the laws and the ease and functionality of it. Just I use a computer for work. That makes my life easier. Now you've got a product that just now helps you as well.

SPEAKER_00 6:56

On the auction side of things, obviously I alluded to I've had years of doing auctions, like, right? So you're live and you're in person, everybody's in the crowd, and they're still trying to figure out how to say, hey, I want this one without telling the world, hey, I want this one and bidding and doing all that. So online auctions some anonymity, be able to look for breed type and character and those animals that they want in a way that they can do private research, they can do it from their home and so forth. And that's great. The same thing is true for the seller, right? You want to be able to showcase your animals, get them out there, and you can take your time, upload the pictures and the information. Then you can answer questions for people who truly want to know the answers to the questions versus something having to do a print catalog that's out of date as soon as you print it, those kinds of things. Um, we have done all kinds of online auctions in our time frame. And I know this is sometimes a question, so I'll bring that up. We uh started back in the day doing staggered ending. And so staggered ending is a type of auction where the first one starts off and it's bidding and then it has to sell before you go to the second one, right? Or you can do it timed where the first three will do that and so forth, and the next three won't open up until later. The problem that we found over the years with livestock, especially with show animals, is I might be really interested in lot seven, but lot one is my second choice. So, in a staggered ending situation, that doesn't allow me to wait to see if I can really get lot seven. I have to make it on lot one right then. So that is where the birth of racehorse style came from. And racehorse style, we have found, has benefited everybody. It does what I just explained for the buyer. So I can bid on lot seven until it's too high for me. And if lot one is not out of my wheelhouse by that point, I can go back up to lot one, right? On the seller's side, it also allows other people to enter during the process and say, hey, wait, I didn't even notice that one before. So they're watching and they're learning as people are buying. And so that is why that has become so popular in this particular industry of livestock, are for those reasons. It's a great way. So that was the auction question, right? Yeah, and how we do that. And then Becky was alluding to something we were just chatting about earlier, and that when people come to an auction, you're gonna come to sell your animals and you have a set price in your head that you're willing to sell the animal for. You put all the research into them, the breeding, the money you may do to depends on the industry, but AI and all of those kinds of things. So you know what your investment is, and it is perfectly right and legitimate and legal for you to place a price on what you would be willing to sell your personal property for because that's what it is. It's your personal property that you're selling. You're just using an auction as a way to be able to sell, correct? On the flip side of it, what it does for a buyer is the same thing, it allows them to say, Okay, I am willing to pay X amount of dollars, and they help the two pieces together help to establish a fair market value. The example I gave earlier was you might say, My I want $7,500, and then I may say, Well, I'll give you $4,500. In an auction category, we're bidding that out and seeing how that might play out, right? In a personal category, we're just done talking at that point. Right. That doesn't happen. Auctions are a very good way to allow both sides of it to basically come at it from an equal playing field.

SPEAKER_01 10:17

Yeah, and I'll tell you what, we've been having a lot of questions as to but people don't know who's bidding. Are they real bidders? Is it somebody else just bidding for themselves? We've been running into a lot of this in the Highland mini crossbreed world, and it raises a whole lot of conversation on Facebook, honestly. And we've been hearing a lot of scrutiny about that. But coming from a standpoint, for me, last week there was an auction that I was bidding on a live auction online, and they kept saying my name. Well, my name kept oh, if Lori's looking at this animal, maybe I should be looking at this animal because they know who Lori is that's bidding on that animal. I mean, I would prefer sometimes my name not be said.

SPEAKER_00 11:05

Right. As I always liken it too. You bidding from home and just placing your bid quietly and doing that is not any different than somebody doing it in a crowd. Until it gets down to the end in a live situation, they're coming from all over and you can quietly do that, right? And you don't necessarily want to draw attention. And you're absolutely right. In a perfect world, it wouldn't necessarily mean because Lori's on it, then Joe's gonna bid three times more than Joe would naturally bid, but that can happen, but that's not necessarily a bad thing, all the way over for Taylor who's selling her animal, and so that's causing once again that free market, right? That ability to find what the worth is. When we do online bidding in our live sales on our auctioners, we'll say internet a lot, but they will they try to like grab your first name so that there could be 20 lorries instead of your whole name, so that that you can keep some of that equanimity.

SPEAKER_03 11:57

That comes all back to though, like what Carol said at the very beginning there of like it still has a price to Lori, it still has a price to me, and it has a price to like you. We're all bidding for it. If my price is set, if this is all the more I'm gonna spend, that's that. Whoever you're bidding against, it doesn't really matter. Like you have your limit. Once you hit your limit, you're out, that's it. If your limit's not it and you're the winning bidder, congrats, you did it, right?

SPEAKER_02 12:18

I think you've noticed too, a lot of times, and especially in the miniature, like the highland, trying to be reserve not met. There like several of them, no matter even what platform it is. Like I've seen several, like, we'll put reserve not met. Oh, you can put your reserve in on administrative side, the front side of bidder will see reserve not met. So they know that you have a reserve at that point. So they're not shocked that there's a reserve gets not met. So that's where the conversations that are on Facebook, too. Like, I have a hard time seeing, like it tells you there's a reserve in there. So you know there's a reserve in there. So at that point, it doesn't matter who you're bidding against because there's a reserve on it. Whether it's me trying to get it closer to that or six people bidding against you, the reserve still is not met. So therefore, you as the seller has to be okay with keeping it at the end of the sale. And I don't know very many people that want to own all of their animals back after putting time and effort into an auction. So I do think like reserve not met, it's out there. You know it's there. You have option yourself to bid against that or not, if that's not something you want to do.

SPEAKER_03 13:24

But it's still considered a reserve, right? If you start a price, if you put a price on, like if you're having an auction and you put a price on it, right? Of we're gonna start this bid at $1,500. In all reality, that is a reserve. Reserve.

SPEAKER_00 13:37

A lot of times the difference in the terminology, just to help your listeners, is a lot of times they'll refer to that one as a floor. Gotcha. However, if it's a floor, everything's gonna start the same. Okay. So if it's a floor, everything's a thousand. If there's a floor set for the auction, doesn't matter who's in the auction, if it's all yours or if it's a multi-consignment sale, those will have that floor. If you look on an auction and one is a thousand, one is five hundred, what and so forth, that would be more in terms of what a reserve is, because you're saying no matter what, I'm not taking less than a thousand or I'm not taking less than fifteen hundred, all these other people are starting at 500. And that means there's opportunity that they might go ahead and sell theirs for 600, you know what I mean? Because that's a different price level.

SPEAKER_02 14:20

I want Carol to talk a little bit about like why an auction? Why would you not just start? Because I've heard this a lot too. Like, why would you not start the animal at your reserve instead of like a little bit less and then the auction side of it? So why would you do auction versus just buy now?

SPEAKER_00 14:38

Okay. So once again, auctions are an ability to look at things and find fair market value, like we've said before, right? But the reason that you put in an auction and you say, for example, my reserve is 1800, I'm gonna start it at a thousand because you have to allow people to come to terms with what it is that they're willing to spend, right? So in an auction format, that answer is you want that bidding frenzy to happen. But you're still letting people know at the end of the day that if it doesn't reach this number, it's not gonna sell, but it allows the people to get started. If you start everything at 1800 and that's already out of somebody's wheelhouse of what they would thought they were willing to look at, then you're never gonna get their attention in the first place from a marketing perspective. So it's not hiding anything from them, it's not that side of it, but it's also not discrediting them from being able to come into terms with, you know what? I really do want that animal. And so I'm gonna start bidding up to where I'm comfortable. Nobody's gonna make me go over $1,500 or whatever I'm willing to do. It helps with the bidding process. The other side of it, as what's Becky's saying, is there because there's not a reason for the conversation or other people to help set that standard of what the animal is worth if you're not in an auction environment. So you put it up on Facebook and I'm willing to take $1,800. This person calls and says, Well, I'm only gonna give you a thousand. You guys can still barter, right? But there's nothing wrong with that. But it's just the two of you bartering, and there's nobody else on the outside to help you set that fair market value of between the two of you, what is a legitimate rightful cost for this animal? And so that's where auctions come into play and are very helpful in setting that standard.

SPEAKER_03 16:20

I know, and like the live auctions we've gone to there's the option. So, like as a seller, right? You take your animal, you have it in the ring, no one's interested in it, right? You don't have two people wanting to bid on it. And to you, you've put it in the ring, they started it out, whatever. First bid comes up at a thousand dollars. In your head, I need 2500. I can't get another bid past 2200. You have that option though. I don't know if this is as typical of the ones that I've been to, but best seller still has that option to say, that's not enough. This calf is worth more to me. It's my value on the calf. I'm gonna keep it and I'll do whatever I want with it. That's okay too. And like, that's like in the online auctions, I don't think people recognize as much. Like you're saying, it's the same process, right?

SPEAKER_02 17:02

And I do think you also have the right to say, like, okay, we're within $200. Okay, go ahead and take that reserve off and sell it for $2,200 instead of $2,400.

SPEAKER_00 17:12

I've had a good day. This is my fourth calf. Yeah, my other one sold more than I wanted it for. Let's have yeah, yeah. At the end of the day, I think for consumers on both sides of it, it's good to be educated as a breeder. I have all these investments, it is my perfect right to have this amount of money that I am expecting now, whether it brings that, because the other thing is live auction, Taylor, where I thought you were going as you know, pass-through. Well, that's kind of a similar thing when you're looking at a reserve online. When the reserve isn't met, it's a pass-through. It just didn't meet that. So it's the same concept, right?

SPEAKER_03 17:43

So this misconception that is kind of going through the mini world of there's stuff behind the scenes or it's not a really a fair auction. It all boils down to like, first of all, these auctions are in all animals, right? It's not even that. My husband's on these auctions all the time, buying farm equipment and God knows what else he can find on these auctions. I swear, he's always having to go somewhere. But like, it's all the same thing. And for someone or people to have this conception that, oh, well, they got those prices because they faked it, or that's a lot of that misconception, which is really frustrating because it's all across the board, they're all the same kind of style of auctions. And if anyone's losing in the end, it's the seller if they get stuck with it, right?

SPEAKER_02 18:24

Yes.

SPEAKER_03 18:24

So it's not like there's a whole bunch of bull behind it. It's you either gonna get stuck with it or that person reaches their limit and they win the cat. And they're happy. Right. So for people to put that misconception out there is just frustrating.

SPEAKER_02 18:37

I do think it is a learning curve too. It's pretty new in that livestock world just over the last three or four years. It's training them on the process, even the racehorse style. I get a lot of questions about that. And like, I thought it ended at eight. Well, then you have to educate them on the racehorse style, and they're all on the same time. Or if one gets a bid, and for like Carol said, like maybe lot one is my first choice, or lot seven is my first choice, and I get out like out of my budget, I have something to fall back on. So that's just as good for me as a bidder as it is for you as a seller. Like that leaves that opportunity, and maybe it's close genetics, so you're still winning, you just don't get your favorite color or whatever.

SPEAKER_01 19:17

That and also I have caught racehorse bidding so many times, like forgetting about the auction, like planned on, planned on, planned on looking, but got busy. I don't know, cows got out or and I come back in and I'm like, Oh, I wonder if it's still going and I catch it on the racehorse, but it's still there for you, which is so awesome. I love that style. Do I get annoyed after a while? Yeah, I'm the one that has a bit and I want it. So come on.

SPEAKER_00 19:43

Just started to remember in our personal company, you're never out there on your own. We always have somebody watching just to make sure everything's going well. Right. And so last night, one of my key customers, I got done at 12:35 a.m. You know what I mean? So wow. Excited for them, but why do you want to go?

SPEAKER_01 20:01

Yeah, I totally get it. But when you're the one that has the bid, you're like, oh, is it ever gonna end up?

SPEAKER_03 20:08

Yeah, it's such a benefit, it's such a benefit can't be to like in-person auction, right? Because that first one goes through and you're like, oh, that one is back there, I'm gonna spend my money. And then if that one goes over your budget, then you're like, I'm screwed. The next three already sold, like I'm out. So that race ours at the end is awesome. Well, I like it too.

SPEAKER_02 20:25

And if we've had customers leave to try something different as far as like the staggered endings and things like that that are now back, I mean, you realize like there's a a benefit to it for everybody, not just the seller. So I think that plays a huge part in what makes it a great platform and how you can sell and everybody is good.

SPEAKER_01 20:44

Great. I definitely agree. What else have we not covered?

SPEAKER_02 20:47

One thing I want to cover too is why Lori or Taylor's identity is a little bit, not a little bit, it is hidden on our software. Like when there's bidding going on on W2 Auction Solutions, it's a timestamp. So you can see how much somebody bid at what time. Like it's a whole, if there's 30 bids on there, you can see the whole log of bid. Yeah, but there's not an identifier to who that is. So I'm gonna have Carol talk about that too. Again, there's a reason for it, and I'm gonna let her explain why we opt not to show the identity or an indicator of who is bidding you're bidding against.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

And it's back to that anonymity, right? In this world, this is an online service, and we want to protect you as much as we want to protect you as a buyer as much as we want to protect our sellers, right? And as Taylor alluded to, and she actually answered this question well earlier, is that when someone sees someone else bidding, they may bid for the right reasons that that's the ML they want, and they're excited and they're happy about that. They may bid for other reasons, not so good for anybody in the industry. They're just trying to drive it up or driving you off or trying to do this for the not so right reasons, correct? So it allows. Everybody to have their right to share what they were able to purchase and market it and move forward with it at their time after the close of business. Because at the end of that, even sometimes people aren't ready to announce, hey, I bought the champion bull, and because I'm waiting to do a bunch of marketing, then I'm gonna put this big broadcast out, and I want to be able to make this happen and make this work for my company, right? So those are the the key reasons why.

SPEAKER_02 22:27

No, I think that nails it. Like a lot of times when there's especially a bigger investment, like that, I don't feel like is needs to be public how much I spent on an animal until I'm ready to share that on my own. It doesn't mean I'm being sneaky. It doesn't mean I'm trying to hide anything. It just means like I get to be able to decide when I want to share this great thing that I just did. And like Carol said, if it's a bull, maybe I want to do a big marketing plan on selling genetics and all the things that will help everybody. So I think that wanting to know who's I'm bidding against, I don't think that it's that's an important feature. You bidding is you wanting that animal, not who you're bidding against or if somebody else is trying to drag you out.

SPEAKER_00 23:10

It goes all the way back to do you know what you want to spend? Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It does. I think sometimes with uh social media and Facebook and when people get all wrapped up, they forget about taking two deep breaths and stepping back and saying, Do I really need to know that? Why do I really need to know that? And what benefit does that truly have to me? And if people will just take a couple steps back in this new world order that we live in and remember that the bottom line is I'm doing what's best for me and my family and my livestock and my farm and so forth, it really doesn't none of that other part really matters. They would all be better off.

SPEAKER_01 23:48

I know even this last year on the National Western Highland auction, there was people saying they didn't have an idea who bought their animal. They didn't know. We'll be able to figure it out when if they register that animal. But otherwise, the company said they legally cannot get that information out to the seller, to the seller, could be a state-by-state thing and so forth.

SPEAKER_00 24:10

So, for in our instance, for example, sale that we just had a couple weeks ago in Indianapolis, over a thousand animals sold. Yeah, when the settlement comes, and this would be the case if if you ever did an online sale too, but when the settlement comes, it does tell you who purchased and so forth. Now, if a buyer calls and says, I don't want my information released, yes, and that may be what they're just doing the blanket so that they don't have to do both sides of that. If someone says they don't want their information released, then you have an obligation not to release their information. But generally speaking, that's yeah, a rule, at least with Willoughby State price.

SPEAKER_01 24:46

So do you believe like every auction is different? So you've got a list of let's just go with a random number of 10 different mini crossbreed auctions. By grouping those together, does that really give you a good average number of what the animals are worth? Or is there so much that depends on that overall number?

SPEAKER_00 25:07

I think whether it's minis or or whatever, anything, yeah, it doesn't matter, I guess. I think in every breed there's a diversity, and then the diversity comes with the breeders, and it comes down to the genetics that those breeders choose to utilize, it comes down to how they market because some people are much more exceptional marketeers than others. And so you can take a big group and kind of come up with an overall average, but you probably have to take the high high off and the low low off of that too to help you to do that. But my opinion, auctions and farms and firms all come with their own personalities, just like all your kids would. So each one is gonna have different things that are going to help. But on the flip side of that, that's kind of where some of what we do comes into play. Because it doesn't matter for us if you are a smaller firm or if you are a big, very well-established firm. We're going to give you the same amount of care and attention. UPa, and ask questions about what we believe would be the best order. We'll tell you that. You would say, What are my pictures like? And you're super proud of them. Well, and we think they're awful. We will try to figure out an obvious way to tell you that.

SPEAKER_01 26:16

I appreciate that, honestly.

SPEAKER_00 26:18

That's kind of where the diversity and auctions come from. And I do think from my perspective, and that's one of the things that does set our personal organization apart from others, is that we want you all to be successful. We don't just go after the ones we already see as successful. We want everybody to be successful because how does everybody win? Everybody does better if everybody's successful, right? So exactly. Uh did that answer your question?

SPEAKER_02 26:42

I think so, but I piggyback on some of that. Like some of the things that make a different. Are they registered? Are they just pasture pets? Are they crossed with like other highlands to make them a certain look or certain body type or small or large? Like if you're taking 10 different sales, like I don't know who does the registration. I don't know who is just doing for agribusiness or things like that. I think those play into effect also, like the cattle side of it and which sheep side of it, is it production? Is it for going to market or those kind of things? So don't think you can a hundred percent take 10 different ones not knowing what each farm has to offer. But I do think it will somehow, it'll set, you'll get an idea, but I don't think it's something that is in stone.

SPEAKER_00 27:27

I do think your particular species at the moment has so much diversity, right? Because there is, they're truly it's what used to be like in in sheep, they were either for commercial use and selling for consumer purposes to raise to go to market, or they were show. And now with agro tourism and agribusiness, and it even trickles into the sheep world, but especially in the mini world, in my opinion, or like um the mini donkeys now and all the stuff. Yeah. Okay, how do I get these ones I know are super tame? And so that's what I'm looking for, versus I want to do really well in the show industry versus I want to grow this herd to be known as the kingpin of the mini world, whatever it is, it's just very, very diverse right now. Yes.

SPEAKER_02 28:09

And that's where I think it's hard, harder to set like a value, or I think it's hard to compare in those situations just because it is so diverse.

SPEAKER_00 28:18

I mean, you get an idea, but then it all comes back to what the value is for the person raising. Correct.

SPEAKER_01 28:24

So I'll be perfectly honest, actually, gonna be giving uh Panderosa a shout out. Their sales are huge. Web cattle, another one. Their sales can be absolutely huge. That's my goals, that's where I want to be. But you can't because we're not quite where they're at right now. I feel like we can't really average our numbers into their numbers, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_00 28:48

And that's just I mean, that's being honest. That's in any of the markets, though, to be honest, Lori. And that's back to what I say about we love our big breeders, they're awesome, but we love our small breeders just as much because there's a place for everybody.

SPEAKER_01 29:00

Yeah, Becky's great with uh uh we love her, she's been so awesome and so helpful. And yeah, we can't say enough good about her because she'll she'll answer security. If she's available, she answers if she if not, and it doesn't matter, it can be random. We've had some random conversations. We have, and I think the most because I think that right now social media can just be a killer, and people don't understand the full they're seeing a one-sided conversation and all the negative, they're not seeing because they don't know how it truly done, how it works, they're not seeing the other part of it. And I wanted to group this all together. People could really hear and know what these auctions and what they can do for them. I mean, everyone could jump on and do these auctions. It's actually way easier than what I ever thought. Becky makes it super easy. Thank you.

SPEAKER_02 29:55

I do think that's where some of it comes into play. And you gave a shout out to Panderosa and Webb, and even you guys had your first great sale. It was awesome. Like what all of you put into making that happen? All the pre-gaming. You planned your breeding, you planned your marketing. Those are things that don't happen overnight. So, someone coming in wanting to sell one bull calf or heifer calf that has never done that before and doesn't have the marketing behind it and things like that, it's gonna be a little bit tougher. And that's where we come into play where we can help you market, help you do those things. But yeah, like those farms, that's what they do. They market and they have their breeding planned out years in advance and add to that to make maybe something I don't have now. I'm gonna have it in two years because I've I'm pre-planning those kind of things. That's a big deal. And that's been doing it for a long time.

SPEAKER_01 30:44

It's a lot of work because I've been doing it for four years. It's been what we both have been doing it for now. It is a lot of making a few mistakes here and there and realizing, I mean, we've got into and this is a whole nother world into the embryos. So that just the time and money on that on our calves now is makes a difference.

SPEAKER_00 31:06

That's where some of these questions come because the general population, right? Your POV, they have no clue of all that investment. And so they just know that their daughter has saved $1,200 and they want a calf.

SPEAKER_02 31:18

Yeah. Cow's out in a field, and now there's a baby. But there's so much more into it than that.

SPEAKER_01 31:23

Yeah, I am gonna get into this. Um I'm not, I am. We also have so many people that they want a calf for that amount. Heck, the commercial right now, bottle calves on the commercial side that has nothing backing it is $1,500 around here. So it's like, and that's not even a mini, like the boutique type cattle. So I think that's another misconception, too. Yeah, they don't understand that at all. They don't. And so when the price is what they go for on these auctions, they're like, whoa. But I mean, I know what I paid for my a couple of steers that I bought for my granddaughter to show. But I knew I had my my how much I wanted to do. You have your budget. You had your plenty of budget. We have been to Oklahoma this last few days to a highland show, so my brain is a little bit fuzzy. A lot of sleepless night, but it was a good time.

SPEAKER_03 32:13

You guys's service is awesome. Becky, you're great at what you do. You've built an amazing site for us to really just get into the sales. We've been doing it four or five years now, but like that's really, really new. I mean, you think about it. You buy the calf, you're waiting a year for it to get old enough to even breed, or 18 months to breed. Some of them three years to breed, right? And then you're getting a calf on the ground. So, I mean, in the sense we're still newbies, we're still learning, we're still building a following behind us. So these people that are in here for goodness, 10 years, 15 years, who started this all out. They're way ahead of us. So, starting with you guys has been a blessing because it has really, I felt jump started.

SPEAKER_01 32:50

Our sales part for is getting the hair sent in pictures. Yeah, and pictures. This year it's kind of our everything's been so nice out. It's hard to get with Highlands, they start shedding out. It's spring already, and it's January. Usually, this is the time of year that I get my awesome photos of my highlands because it's greening up, but we've had no rain and we need rain in Nebraska to be almost 100 degrees in March. Is this crazy? It's crazy, yeah. Yeah, so in February 70s. Talking about that.

SPEAKER_03 33:23

85 here yesterday.

SPEAKER_01 33:24

85, yeah.

SPEAKER_03 33:25

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 33:26

Our weather's been insane. Well, I appreciate you guys so much. And if you guys want to know more about W2 auctions and Willoughby sales, that's up there.

SPEAKER_00 33:35

And like said, if you want to know any information, give that girl a call. Yes, you got rabbits to sell.

SPEAKER_02 33:43

Yeah, and I'm the one that was like, oh my gosh, we've got this great thing going on. I can't stand it.

SPEAKER_01 33:49

All right, thank you guys for tuning in to Horns and Cubs. We'll see you.

SPEAKER_03 33:53

Thank you guys for being on special.

SPEAKER_01 33:55

It's up toe. Bye.