Cattle Sale Hastings, New Zealand – 20th May 2026
- 4 hours ago
- 1 min read
While travelling in New Zealand last week, we attended a cattle sale to see how it compared to the Yea Saleyards and found our local yards were miles ahead both in the facility and selling process. The NZ yards still had all concrete flooring in all pens. The Cattle were all sold through a central undercover pen which was also the weigh pen, with buyers sitting in tiered undercover seating. The bidding process was very slow with much time taken up with a few phone and online bids. Cattle were let out of the selling pen well before bidding was completed. The weight and Tuberculosis status of cattle was displayed on-screen above the auctioneer’s box.
There was no curfew period with cattle mainly arriving on the morning of sale, which started at 10.30AM.
I think it would have taken them all day to sell a large yarding of 3,000- 4,000 head.
Jan Beer
