Meet 10 livestock auctioneers who are working with SA farmers amid the drought
Drought-stricken South Aussies farmers are being forced to sell off every last animal and a leading auctioneer warns an impending shortage will hit supermarkets.
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It’s been a busy year for livestock auctioneer Ben Dohnt but for a devastating reason.
With dry conditions persisting across the state, drought stricken farmers have been forced to sell off their livestock amid a lack of feed and water.
“We’ve got a lot more animals hitting the market now than normal,” the 36 year old who works for Platinum Livestock/CIA said.
“People have just plain run out of water, we’ve got dams gone dry, we’ve got bores that have run out of water.
“People are having to spend a lot of money on water infrastructure just to make sure they can water their stock, never mind the feed costs on top of that.
“It’s a lot easier for people to make the decision to sell their livestock.”
In the past five weeks, Mr Dohnt, who covers Fleurieu Peninsula and Kangaroo Island, said he had sold all the livestock from six properties, with farmers telling him they could no longer afford to keep the animals.
“That would never happen in a non-drought period,” he said.
“I believe this has been the hardest 18 months in agriculture we’ve had for a very, very long time.
“There’s people out there well into their 80s and they cannot remember it being this dry, this widespread.”
Despite the recent oversupply of cows and steers on the market, he said the current global demand for red meat meant he was still able to get farmers a good price for their livestock.
“But in saying that, the effects are going to be felt later on because everyone is in the process of destocking or minimising their breeding numbers,” he said.
“We’re going to see very, very low numbers of stock right through South Australia for the next, could be 18 months, could be two, two and half years just because it’s going to take so long for people to recover.
“Now we’re getting to the point where we are running out of livestock. It’ll mean higher prices at the supermarket and the butcher for meat because we’re going to run short.”
Mr Dohnt has worked as a livestock agent for nearly a decade and an auctioneer for around nine and a half years.
He prides himself on his knowledge of stock values and the market but also being able to perform.
“I watch quite a few American auctioneers. I wish that we could emulate those guys here in Australia,” he said.
“It’s a little bit to do with the accent and a little bit to do with the words that they are able to use.
“I’ve studied a lot of them, and how they do it and try to emulate it but it’s very, very difficult.”
At the end of the day, he said, he was always looking to get the best price for the vendor.
Mr Dohnt is among the state’s top livestock auctioneers who sell thousands of sheep, cattle and steer to the highest bidder at auction – and put on an impressive show in the process.
Meet the kings of the SA’s stockyards.
Ben Dickenson
Business: Nutrien Ag Solutions
Location: Cummins
When Ben Dickenson was starting out as a trainee livestock agent in 2009 at Jamestown, he was seeing dozens of newcomers like him – 30 to 40 people – every year.
Today, he says the industry is not seeing anything like those numbers, “which is concerning”.
“The agency and livestock industry is an amazing career for young people that can take them all around Australia, meet amazing people and a lifelong career,” he said.
During his 15 years in the industry, he has “seen some massive highs … with huge prices” and said it was a “great feeling knocking stock down at record prices and getting huge results for our vendors”.
“But I think the bigger moments are when our selling teams work together in the tough times when the job is hard with seasonal conditions and pricing is against us and our vendors.”
Conor Lamond
Business: Elders
Location: Roseworthy
Conor Lamond sold his first pen of cattle in Moura in Central Queensland a decade ago as a trainee with Elders and has since been enjoying the “rush and excitement” of auctioneering.
His proudest moment was representing SA at the ALPA National Young Auctioneers Competition in Sydney in 2018.
He said keeping on top of market fluctuations and valuing the livestock to get top price for clients are among the biggest challenges of the job.
More recently, he said droughts were affecting competition.
“We are definitely seeing the lack of competition in the market with those re-stockers who generally buy consistently from late spring, right through until the end of summer to trade over their stubbles or into their feedlots,” he said.
“Rise in commodity prices (grain, hay, etc) has made margins tighter than usual so we are seeing less competition from those buyers.”
Jonathan Spence
Business: Spence Dix & Co
Location: Keith
Working on US cattle properties in the 90s, sparked Jonathan Spence’s interest in auctioneering.
“In 1996 I travelled and worked on cattle properties in the USA, during this time I travelled with a sale promoter and auctioneer to several sales and enjoyed the speed of the selling … and the excitement of the American auctioneers,” he said.
“I guess this is where the seed was sown.”
After spending much of his teens and twenties admiring auctioneers, Mr Spence got his own start with a small independent firm called Fleurieu Estates in 2001.
In 2003 he won the REI/Stock Journal Golden Gavel for all open livestock auctioneers in SA.
But he said his proudest moment was his agency’s first Angus female sale in December 2009.
Earlier that year, he and Rodney Dix started the agency Spence Dix & Co.
“We yarded over 1000 Angus breeding cows and had a very successful sale in a tough market at Naracoorte while it rained all day,” he said.
Mr Spence said he hoped to continue to grow and improve Spence Dix & Co “and watch the younger auctioneers come through and do me out of a job”.
Sam O’Connor
Business: Nutrien
Location: Mount Gambier
A second-generation auctioneer Sam O’Connor has follow his late father Peter, a Mount Gambier-based stock agent and auctioneer, “like a shadow”.
The 49-year-old recalled how he fell in love with the job after making his first impromptu sale as a teenager.
“One day, during a break from school, I was at the saleyards working with (dad) and just before he was to start selling a run of cattle he asked me to pass him some paperwork,” Mr O’Connor said.
“I gave the paperwork to him, he gave me the stick he used to hold whilst selling. As he reviewed the paperwork, after perhaps 15 to 20 seconds, I said “dad the buyers are waiting” and he looked up from reading and said “well you better get into it”.
Since then, Mr O’Connor’s knowledge and passion for the craft has continued to grow.
“I really became drawn by the excitement and challenge of selling,” he said.
“I love the interaction with buyers during a livestock auction.
“This can at times be adversarial when markets are on a downward trend but the relationships you build with these buyers lasts a lifetime.”
Three decades on, Mr O’Connor hopes to continue doing what he loved for many more years and share his skills with the next generation of auctioneers and agents.
“This has been a career which has taken me all over the state and a fair chunk of the country meeting people, making friends and experiencing the best of regional Australia and its people,” he said.
“As long as there is someone willing to sell their stock, I’ll be there ready on market day.”
Gordon Wood
Business: Nutrien Ag Solutions
Location: Strathalbyn
Gordon Wood’s career as an auctioneer was launched with no warning.
“My first auction was a clearing sale at Bowhill in the Murraylands where I sold goods and chattels, I also offered some Border Collie pups for which there were no bids,” he said.
“I was given a start on that day by the agent at the Murray Bridge branch.
“He simply stood aside said you’re “on mate, good luck.”
More than 20 years in the job now, he enjoys travelling across the state and further, “auctioning some of the best genetics in the world”.
“Auctioneering is fast paced and no two auctions are the same,” he said.
Mr Wood said he was always working on improving his skills and keeping abreast of market trends.
“As an auctioneer you are only as good as your last auction,” he said.
Glen Keast
Business: Nutrien Ag Solutions
Location: Dublin
He started in the business by selling sundries, but today Glen Keast holds the top job of auctioning lambs and yearling cattle.
Poached from a job at a butcher shop by family run franchise Dalgety Redden Agencies nearly 30 years ago, he has continued to grow in the industry.
“Within a few years, and after some improvement, I was offered the opportunity to sell livestock at the Dublin Livestock exchange, one of South Australia’s major selling centres,” he said.
“I worked my way up from selling the mutton and calves after many years, to taking over the number one job – selling the lambs and yearling cattle on behalf of my employer Nutrien Ag Solutions.
“The proudest moments in my career have been during the challenging times of dry conditions and surviving the low livestock prices coming out of the Covid times.”
Mr Keast said among the biggest challenges of the job were having the confidence to stand in front of the buying gallery “and always having a smile on your face, even when things are not going your way”.
Within the wider industry, he said dry conditions were also posing challenges.
“The dry conditions in South Australia at the moment are as bad as I have seen within my 28 year career,” he said.
“The farmers are doing it tough, they have been feeding livestock for such an extended period.
“The only saving grace for the clients that are being forced to sell their livestock due to the dry, is that the livestock prices being achieved at the moment are very high, thus giving them some monetary reward.
“In droughts of the past prices have been in the doldrums.”
Josh Pahl
Business: South Australian Livestock (SAL)
Location: Naracoorte
Josh Pahl has always known he wanted to livestock agent and auctioneer.
“I first started at few clearing sales, sporting club events and now sell weekly at the Naracoorte regional livestock exchange, where I sell the sheep, bulls and cows,” he said.
In his three years of auctioneering, Mr Palh became a two-time ALPA National Young Auctioneers competitor and took out first place at the 2024 ALPA South Australia Young Auctioneers Competition.
“Some of the biggest challenges we go through would have to be dealing with a price correction in the market, this has many different factors but working with our clients to best market and achieve best results is our goal,” he said.
Jack Guy
Business: Spence Dix & Co
Location: Bordertown
In his five years as a livestock auctioneer, Jack Guy has earned just about as many accolades.
Last month he was named one of two South Australian finalists in the ALPA National Young Auctioneers Competition.
He has previously won the ALPA South Australia Young Auctioneers competition twice and was named runner up once.
“I got prepared by selling as often as I could down at Naracoorte and (one-on-one) sessions with (livestock auctioneers) Johno Spence and Luke Schreiber,” he said.
He said his love of livestock and people drew him to the job.
Among his proudest moments were selling an entire sheep and cattle run at Naracoorte as well as selling at his first stud sale.
Mat McDonald
Business: Southern Australian Livestock
Location: Naracoorte
He started his career on clearing sales but today Mat McDonald is an award-winning livestock auctioneer.
The 34 year old has previously won the ALPA South Australia Young Auctioneers competition and was named runner up twice in his 20s.
While he doesn’t love public speaking, he enjoyed the thrill of “getting up there and selling your client’s stock”.
“When you have good days and good prices, you get a good adrenaline rush out of it,” he said.
Going forward, he hopes to bring other young people on board and train them up in auctioneering.
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