Phone app aids cattle sales

A free herd management phone application for farmers has sold more than £1.85m worth of cattle since adding a trading platform to its suite just four months ago.

In that time, according to the Breedr app founder, Ian Wheal, farmers have sold 2,912 cattle; 2,475 of liveweight trades and 437 deadweight.

“Feedback has been incredibly positive, with sellers enjoying the speed and ease of selling stock and purchasers buoyed by the confidence that buying based on actual weights gives,” said Wheal.

The app enables farmers to list their stock for sale, complete with the movement history, weights, growth rates, medicine usage and photos of each animal.

Wheal said that, on average, vendors received 99.7 per cent of their asking price with most selling within five days of listing. He added that the average lot size was 14 head, commanding £11,530 – with stock ranging from weaned calves to stores and finished cattle.

Lois Black from Greenock, who has been using the Breedr app since October to help monitor weight gain in her herd of 70 Simmental, Shorthorn, and Angus cattle, was one of the 3,000 buyers and sellers to register on the online marketplace.

“It used to be that the dealer would come and we’d have a look at the animal, guess the weight and then negotiate a price,” said Black.

But with accurate weights she said that she could sell them for more.

“I’ve sold 24 cattle so far on Breedr and got around £100 a head more than usual, so it’s made quite a big difference to my income.”