Auction-Time Adventures

If you have never been to a farm auction, then you are truly missing out on one of the greatest experiences in life. Farm auctions are not simply about buying items or attempting to buy an item, instead they are about the interactions. Farmers are a more social group than one might imagine. Yes, they enjoy the time they have to themselves and the time that they spend in their tractors away from the outside world, but they do enjoy the social time too. Otherwise, you wouldn't have stories about the gossip that gets spread over the coffee hour at the local gas station or cafe. Similarly, the auction lot acts in the same way. A farm retirement auction acts as a great area to meet and shoot-the-wind with the other farmers in the area. There is no better time to talk about the weather, the markets, or a new piece of equipment/practice that you plan on trying out. I think that secretly, every farmer is waiting for that announcement of a farm auction, so they have that excuse to get out and be social with the neighbors that in reality may only live a mile or two down the road but that they never see otherwise.

Auctions are also a great opportunity to find a piece of equipment for cheaper than you may be able to buy new. However, you have to be careful so not to get sucked into over bidding and spending more than the item is currently worth. In order to do this this require taking a look at the piece of equipment and looking for any faults or repairs needed. One really needs to do their homework on what a piece of equipment may be worth before they start bidding. A lot of the time I'm comparing prices found online posted by other farmers that are trying to sell the same piece of equipment outright. For example, if I want to buy a tractor and I see that dealers and other farmers are attempting to sell it for $20,000 then I will feel accomplished if I get it for less than $20,000. It can be very easy to go over that number though if you are not careful.

My wife probably dreads the text messages from me on an auction day. I know that I have sent her several that she has probably wondered why I made the purchase that I did. For instance, there was the day that I sent her a picture of a swather (a tractor-type machine used for cutting hay) asking her how much I spent on it. Or the day I sent her a picture of a rusty old truck. Or the night that I asked if I should place an online bid on a tractor followed by a text the next day saying, "Oh crap, we just bought a tractor."

Let's start with the story of the swather. This is a good one, because I still retell it today and often use it as an example for how cheap I am when bidding on auction items. I was not really in the market for a swather that day but had kind of tagged it in my mind as something I would keep my mind on. I was following the crowd and listening to the items being sold when we got to the swather. The auctioneer made the claim that it ran and was drivable (which later on was found out to be a half-truth). I engaged in a conversation with my mother-in-law and really didn't pay much attention until I heard the auctioneer throw out a bid of $100 that no one took. I told my Mother-in-Law that I'd get back to our conversation in a moment. The bid dropped to $50, then $30, then $10 and I raised my hand placing a bid. Before I knew it the auctioneer called out those familiar words, "SOLD!" This was the first piece of ag equipment that I had bought at an auction, and I felt pretty proud. However, we later discovered that the engine only ran if gasoline was poured straight into the carburetor indicating that there were some other issues. We also discovered that the drive was not complete, and it was not truly drivable. It was a good thing that the auction was only a few miles from the farm, so it was relatively easy to tow home. However, this swather now sits in the pasture, never having been operated to this day. The good news is that I could sell it for scrap iron and get my $10 on it very easy. This was the auction that taught me the importance of truly checking out a piece of equipment before making that bid.

Last spring was similar experience in ways, but in some ways, I had learned my lesson. I was in the market for a grain truck and decided to go check out an auction with 3 of them for sale, including a truck used for hauling hay. I waited for the grain truck sales, and made a few bids, but ultimately was outbid on each of them. I was kind of disappointed and when the hay truck came up for auction, I guess I made the decision that the truck would have to do. We did need something to haul hay back to the farm, but in reality, it didn't need to be this truck. I spent $500, which isn't awful. I was able to drive it for at least 10 miles of the 40-mile trip home, but the other 30 miles required my father-in-law towing me home. I don't know why my in-laws have chosen to put up with me like they have. Anyways, we did get the truck running when it was home and have managed to haul 2 loads of hay home with it before I deemed that it needed more work before it could be used again. So, I did get some use out of it, but now I need to make some other changes to it in order use it more regularly.

Finally, last summer we decided that we needed to be looking for a larger tractor in order to farm more acres. I spent the entire summer looking at my options trying to find out which tractor fit what I felt we needed in our operation. I did a lot of research and spent a lot of time comparing prices on different models and makes. I watched several auctions and saw several opportunities slip through my hands. Eventually there was an auction in August that had a tractor that I felt could do the job. I asked Sara what she felt about bidding on a particular tractor that I was watching online which ended the very next day. She said that if I felt comfortable with the tractor then I should make a bid. I called the owner and talked to him about the machine and after that I felt comfortable about making a bid. So, I placed a max bid that I was willing to go to and went to bed, I woke up the next morning and saw that we were still winning. I was fully expecting that the bids would start coming in and the tractor would be above my budget. My research showed that this particular model was going for between $30,000 and $40,000 at auctions and private sales. I watched the auction throughout the morning, and I was surprised with less than an hour remaining that I still had the winning bid at less than $25,000. I watched the clock tick down to zero and all of a sudden, the realization hit that I had just won the auction. Needless to say, I was beyond shocked because I never thought that I would win the auction, but I was pleasantly surprised. We have yet to put the tractor to the test, but I do believe that I actually hit a homerun with this purchase.

The moral to this tale is that farm auctions can be great moments of learning. Homework needs to be completed and a person should not just make a bid if they feel that ought to. Overall, I'm still learning how to make the best use of my time and money at auctions. However, I do feel that I've made several winning bids and purchases despite some of these failures.