AuctionsPlus and ABBA launch industry-first online herd bull selling platform

AuctionsPlus has partnered with the Australian Brahman Breeders Association (ABBA) to launch an industry-first dedicated Herd Bull selling platform, giving Brahman breeders a new way to market and sell bulls online.

The platform is the result of 12 months of collaborative development and caters for operations of all sizes, from smaller vendors looking to reach a wider audience, through to larger producers with significant bull numbers. Designed to bring transactions that have traditionally happened in the paddock to a national online buying audience, a set of criteria has been developed to help vendors describe and sell their bulls to industry best standard.

Any accredited AuctionsPlus delivery agent can get involved and list bulls on the platform. Updated assessment forms are now available via this link.

ABBA President Matthew Noakes unveiled the initiative at the Association's Annual Conference in late April, describing it as a long-term project that reflects a real shift in how the industry can do business.

"We've been working on it for about 12 months now. It's not an overnight thing. We've created a herd bull platform with AuctionsPlus," Mr Noakes said.

Mr Noakes believes central to the platform's appeal is its potential to aggregate vendors within a region, giving buyers the ability to string a line of bulls together and compare what's available across a broader market.

"It's targeted at the herd bull market... to give people more opportunity, especially smaller vendors," Mr Noakes said.

"We believe if we can gather groups of vendors in 150–200km radiuses, with a few bulls, that buyers will come and put those together as an option, rather than going somewhere and maybe having a choice of a second or third run of bulls off a bigger station. They can go and get some smaller vendors' cattle that are probably just as good, if not better, and be better value."

Mr Noakes was also clear that the platform is built with room to grow.

"We're calling it an online herd bull platform because we think it could evolve - with all of AuctionsPlus' choices, a 'buy now', 'make an offer', a sale at the end," he said.

AuctionsPlus General Manager - Network, Paul Holm, said the partnership marks an exciting moment for the broader beef industry.

"AuctionsPlus is excited to work with ABBA. Having a Breed Society engage with us to bring something new to the industry is how innovation grows - benefiting not only ABBA members but the whole of the beef industry," Mr Holm said.

All bulls listed on the platform will be assessed using a herd bull assessment protocol, and all AuctionsPlus Accredited agents are able to list in the auction.

Nominations will close on July 22, with the platform going live July 27 and closing at 5:00pm on August 3. All bulls must meet defined assessment and pedigree criteria.