Livestock dealers provide several key services to the agricultural community. Aside from organizing farm to abattoir sales, they also are frequently called upon to oversee a farm to farm sale (for breeding or finishing purposes), and many also offer their services for auctions.
On-Site Visits
If you are using a livestock dealer or procurement service to sell your livestock to your local abattoir (or you are an abattoir using the service to find stock), you can expect your dealer to pay the farm a visit to first take an extensive overview of the stock in question, usually including photographs and any relevant feed and veterinary information. This allows the dealer to give a level of quality assurance to the abattoir. Although many abattoirs usually work on a grid payment system for livestock, your dealer may also be able to negotiate a price for the purchase.
If you are employing the services of a dealer to help with farm to farm sales for the purposes of finishing or breeding livestock, the dealer should pay a visit to the initiating farm to discuss the finer details of the sale (including taking an detailed record of the livestock in question). They should be able to advise the best price for the selling farm and should also initiate and conclude the sale process with the buying farm. Some dealers will also organize transport.
If you are considering an auction (on your farm or at a livestock market, farmer’s market or auction house), your dealer should be able to help value and sort the stock, as well as organize pens and stalls and the publicity for the auction itself.