BUYERS were not put off by mid-30s temperature and an exposed hilltop paddock with minimal shade as the location for an East Brookton clearing sale on Monday.
More than 300 people attended the sale on behalf of Ray and Natalie Hathaway and son Joel, trading as RC & NF Hathaway & Son, which was organised by Nutrien Ag Solutions on the Hathaway's Sunnydale property which has been sold.
About 270 of those who attended registered to bid and buy, with the Hathaways offering 180 lots and outside vendors Tareena Downs and Chriton WA Pty Ltd, offering a further 22 lots between them.
A stiff breeze made the temperature bearable and kept flies at bay and Nutrien auctioneer Mark Warren was in top voice to be heard above it all.
Top item was a well-presented 115 kiloWatt 2018 New Holland T7.200 front-wheel-assist tractor with 1635 hours showing and fitted with a quick-release Trima front end loader.
Mr Warren accepted $100,000 as an opening bid on it and the price progressed in $1000 increments, with a bidder on the phone and a bidder in the crowd competing against each other.
After a live bid of $119,000 was not bettered on the phone, the tractor was passed in by Mr Warren that is was "very close" to the reserve price.
Before Nutrien staff could move on to the next lot, the bidder with first option, Jack Day from Busselton dairy operation Stockdale Pastoral Co, stepped up and agreed to pay the reserve price of $125,000 for it.
"It hasn't done any heavy work and a new equivalent would cost anywhere between $200,000 and $300,000," Mr Day said later.
"We'll probably use it to shift (hay) bales around and for making silage, but the loader bucket makes it a multi-purpose tractor.
"We looked at a telehandler, but it only provided lift, it didn't have the versatility of a tractor like this."
The biggest tractor offered at the clearing sale, a 2005 205kW Massey Ferguson 8470 Dyna-VT with front-wheel-assist, rear duals and 5700 hours showing, was the second top item.
Bidding started at $70,000 and climbed in $1000 increments to $87,000, with the successful bid placed by MJ & HA Wyatt, Cuballing.
A 104kW 2004 McCormick MTX 140 tractor with 7650 hours and also fitted with a quick-release Trima front end loader, was sold on the second bid for $43,500 to Zabco Holdings, Bruce Rock.
But there was stiff competition for an older Massey Ferguson 240 tractor with three-point-linkage and power take off, the ideal size for a 'hobby' farm tractor.
Mr Warren opened bidding at $3000 and the price climbed quickly - with another dual between a bidder in the crowd and one on the phone - to a winning phone bid of $5200 from a Perth buyer.
The smallest tractor on offer, a Massey Ferguson 20-12 ride-on mower went for $1550.
Some of the strongest bidding competition was for a 13.1 metre by 21.6 centimetre barrelled Cole Turbo Flow grain auger with hydraulic lift and drive.
The opening bid was $1500 and bidding eventually topped out at $9800, while a similar size older auger with Honda electric motor, but manual lift and no drive, sold for $900.
A pencil auger with electric motor sold for $850.
A second bid upping the price from $50,000 to $51,000 secured a tandem trailer professionally set up for contract sheep handling and shearing, with two Peakhill Industries air rotate sheep handlers, full cradle, two shearing heads and down tubes, an air compressor, lead up race and awnings offered by an outside vendor, for TM Armstrong & SS Sanford, Cranbrook.
Similar to the top tractor, a New Holland CR940 combine harvester with 12m front and comb trailer put up by an outside vendor, was initially passed in at $28,000, but sold privately immediately afterwards for the reserve price of $35,000.
A V8 LandCruiser 70 series with aluminium tray from an outside vendor was passed in at $19,000, but other vehicles offered were sold on the day.
JR & GM Fagg, Ravensthorpe, bought a 1994 Mitsubishi FK457 7.5 tonne tray truck with 134,737 kilometres showing, for $38,000, JA Torner, Corrigin, paid $16,500 for a 2010 Holden Colorado 4x4 tray back ute, TS & DE Cowcher, Cottesloe, paid $5500 for a 2009 Nissan Navara 4x4 dual cab ute and an older Holden Rodeo farm ute sold to Toscana WA, Welshpool, for $1200.
Toscana WA with a single bid of $7000 also claimed an as-new condition Crossfire X400 ATV with roll-over protection and only 20 hours on it.
A 15t Vennings chaser bin sold for $18,000, an 8t Marshall Multispread sold for $16,000 and a complete seeder rig consisting of a 10.9m Bourgault 8800 bar with 22.8cm spacings and 4t Harmon 1900 tow-behind bin sold for $4400.
Jetstream field bins sold for between $1000 and $2500 and a bigger and newer Moylan Silos 133x15 field bin sold for $22,000.
About 50 tonnes of shed-stored 2022 oaten hay in big squares was sold to one buyer at $220/t and approximately 115t of shed-stored 2021 oaten hay, also in big squares, sold to two buyers - one taking 50t at $200/t and the buyer of the previous lot of hay taking the balance at $190/t.
One bid of $280/t bought 55t of Jurien lupins and one bid of $140/t bought 40t of oats for a different buyer.
The clearing sale started with the auctioning of two pens of Merino ewes.
The first pen of 292 ewes ranging in age from 3.5-5.5 years, had Eastville bloodlines and had run with Poll Dorset rams through December and into January.
It sold for $120 a head.
The second pen of 280 5.5-year-old ewes with Westerdale bloodlines, also running with Poll Dorset rams through December and into January, sold for $115 a head.
Both pens were bought by RC & SM Allen, Pingelly.
Speaking on behalf of his parents, vendor Joel Hathaway said the family was "very pleased" with the sale results.
"Some things didn't make quite as much as we expected, but other things sold for way more than we expected and everything sold, we didn't have to put anything back in the shed, so all up we're very pleased," Mr Hathaway said.
He said his parents had decided to retire and he had no interest in running the farm on his own.
He and his young family have already settled in Mandurah and he said he expected his parents to follow him to the coast.
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Sale organiser, Nutrien's Chris Turton, thanked buyers, Nutrien staff who helped out on the day and the Hathaway family for the presentation of equipment for sale.
"I think the presentation was a big factor in the success of the sale," he said.
