A GOOD crowd of 200 registered buyers were in a buying mood at Scaddan last week as Landmark Brindley & Gale conducted a clearing sale on behalf of John and Rose Vermeersch.
Buyers from Queensland, Victoria, South Australia and throughout WA provided plenty of competition for a sale gross of more than $1.6 million.
A big attraction which created a lot of interest and competition was the 2016 model CLAAS Lexion 770 header, which had only completed one season.
It was fitted with Terra Tracs and had recorded 441 engine hours and 340 separator hours and came with a CLAAS Vario 1230 front.
The opening bid was $380,000 and with four potential buyers bidding in $5000 increments, bidding steadily made its way to $445,000 when the header was knocked down to HM & MJ Ward, who had travelled from Wagin.
The previous lot, a Cat Lexion header (3552 engine hrs and 2561 separator hrs) also met with strong competition and sold to RJ & JA Thomason, Esperance, for $57,000.
Of notable interest was the 2016 model AMAZONE 4502W Pantera self-propelled boomsprayer (511hrs), with a 36 metre (120ft) boom.
These models are new to the market with no used models previously sold, so prospective buyers held back and eventually it was passed-in at auction.
It sold after the sale for $305,000 to Stecher Ag Services, Seymour, Victoria.
This item was preceded by a WCM938K front-end loader with a 1.5 metre (5 foot) bucket and came with a rock bucket, stick rake and forks.
Multiple bidders freely competed on this item and it was eventually knocked down for $82,000 to Westkirch Transport, Munglinup.
Leading up to all the items mentioned previously were the tractors, with the top price going to a Case IH STX425 Quadtrac (5722 hours) with GPS auto farm.
This sold for $77,500 and was bought by FG Smith, Cranbrook.
This followed the Case Magnum 255 tractor (874hrs) which sold for $35,000 to the McDonald family, Condingup, trading as Macsfield.
The seeding equipment led up to the tractors, with a Simplicity 12000 two bin, tow-behind model with camera, selling for $13,000 to AJ & MA Coward, Esperance, who had the winning bid on the previous item which was a Case IH PTX 600 seeder bar, which they secured for $15,000.
A 36m Goldacres trailed boomsprayer with an 8000 litre tank also found its way to Seymour, Victorai, when it was knocked down to Stecher Ag Services for $20,000.
Chaser bins were keenly sought with the first one offered being a 25 tonne dual axle Finch bin, which sold for $20,000 to GL & AM Harris, Grass Patch and a 30t Norrish dual axle chaser bin which followed, selling for $65,000 to Melkirch Farms, Munglinup.
A Merlo P26.6LP telehandler realised $24,000 and was bought by Lowana Enterprises, Condingup, which followed the Kuhn Knight Propush 204X Verti spreader, which was bought by local farmer Stephen Hoffrichter for $35,000.
A Massey Ferguson 9.1m (30ft) swather met with good competition and realised $40,000 when it was knocked down to Jimmy Gray, trading as Grayag Esperance.
A Marshall 910T spreader met with strong competition and was finally sold for $37,000 to CJ Broun, Cascade.
This was followed by a BHP 15 tine 5.8m (19ft) ripper which sold for $17,000 to Swandale Investments, Esperance.
Grain handling equipment was in strong demand with a 80T ECF mobile field bin with PTO discharge selling to the Gray family, Esperance for $29,000, trading as Sandplain Farming Trust.
A Landpoint bagging machine sold for $11,000 to Sam Hood, Esperance.
A 70T Vennings bin realised $11,500 when it was knocked down to RJ & EJ Oldfield, Esperance, while open-top mobile field bins sold to a top of $9000 (twice) and were purchased by Dave Vandenberghe and Murray Downs, Esperance.
Mr Vermeersch moved to Scaddan with his parents from the Belgian Congo in 1963 when they took up CP land which had been allocated to them and they spent their farming life in the district.
He and Rose sold their property to neighbours Mark and Haley Wandel, and are looking forward to retirement in Falcon.
