By Kinsey Bitterman
As a buyer, building a strong, positive relationship with your livestock breeders is very important in the livestock industry. Creating this bond will help you open doors to more opportunities to expand your knowledge of your preferred specie(s). Once you create the relationship, you will develop a friend and most importantly, a mentor to learn incredible skills and information as you complete your livestock projects.
Breeders appreciate their livestock and want them to perform well for you; that being said, they also enjoy knowing how your animal is doing in its growing and showing process. Feel free to ask your breeders questions, reach out, and do those simple things to build the relationship.
Speaking of breeders, the way that they are choosing to sell their livestock is evolving. Some sales are just in person and some sales are purely online. The newest trend is a hybrid between the two; in-person and online. The offering between both in-person and online is very effective for breeders who have a wide crop of buyers that expands from state to state. Even though buying livestock animals online is becoming more and more popular there are three things that you should know before you hop onto the interwebs and start clicking buttons: always have Plan A and then a Plan B, free up your attention during the day of the sale and secure a strong internet connection.
Having a plan is very important. If you have the opportunity to see the animals in person I would highly recommend it to create your list and plan of which animal is your Plan A. If you do not have that opportunity, make sure to watch the sale preview or watch for any advertising from the breeder. Writing down lot numbers in order of preference is a good way to keep track of your game plan and what you will do if you do not get your top pick.
Make sure when you are buying animals online you can give the sale your undivided attention. If you do this there will be less chance of missing your planned lot.
A strong internet connection is super important when buying animals online. If your internet is spotty there are endless scenarios of what could happen to ruin your chance of getting your planned lot. For example, you could bid and lose connection and then your bid could not have gone through and then you could have lost that animal. Always have a hotspot available if you know your internet might be unstable. This will help you avoid the loss of internet connection and the potential of not getting your preferred animal in the sale.