Record breaking on-line sale highlights strong second hand machinery market
A Yorkshire sale of exceptional second-hand farm machinery produced record breaking prices attracting unprecedented interest and competition, not only from Yorkshire but throughout the UK from as far afield as Sussex, Perth and across to Ireland.
The recent sale on behalf of G E Cornforth and Sons, Rigton Farm, Bardsey, was originally planned as a traditional on-farm auction in spring but had to be postponed due to the Covid19 lockdown and the online auction attracted bids from as far afield as Sussex, Devon, Scotland and Ireland.
The lockdown period has had a significant effect on the second hand farm machinery market as new machinery has been delayed due to factory closures which in turn means secondhand trade-in equipment has not come onto the market.
Many auction sales planned for the spring and summer have been cancelled or postponed until the autumn which has compounded a shortage of supply. However, demand for the younger and better quality equipment has remained strong, particularly with the increasing costs of buying new.
Richard Tasker, Senior Partner, Stephensons Rural said “In these unprecedented times we had the ability to adapt and seize the opportunity to meet this demand by holding the sale on a timed online auction as it would have been impossible to comply with the social distancing rules with at the farm. As a result, the high quality machinery coupled with the high demand saw 673 registered bidders take part and exceptional trade for every lot.”
Amongst the highlights from the online sale were a successful bid of £108,000 for the John Deere T560i Hillside combine from East Sussex, £50000 took a John Deere 6150R tractor to Doncaster, a JCB TM310 telehandler went for £40,000 to the West Midlands while a MF 2150 baler was sold for £32,500 to a bidder from Essex.
Mr Tasker, who also heads up the machinery sales at York Auction Centre added : “This was a record-breaking online auction and indicates that with delivery delays on new machinery due to the pandemic, the high price of new machinery and a slowdown in trade-ins, the second hand market is short of supplies.
“This particular sale drew a lot of attention because the machinery was very well maintained and had low usage and the results are a fitting tribute to the Cornforth brothers.
“The big question going forward is whether this lockdown period has introduced a different future for auction sales?”
