John Deere tractors top at Lumeah sale for $75,500

The last two lots offered by main vendor Slab Hut Grazing, the JD7180 with 5724 hours showing and the JD9300 with 5600 hours showing, were both snapped up by Andrew Herbert, Hercon Ag, from Forbes in central NSW, who bid by phone via an Elders agent at the sale.

Mr Herbert claimed the smaller tractor with the only bid of $55,000, making it the equal fourth top-priced item of the sale.

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But on the next lot he had to withstand serious competition from within the attending crowd to claim the big tractor at $75,500, making it the top sale item.

Elders auctioneer James Culleton accepted an opening phone bid of $55,000 on the big tractor, but then the bidding competition with a person in the crowd took off, with Mr Culleton calling increases of $500 on alternate bids between phone and in person bidders, until a call of $75,000 was taken from the crowd.

After a brief hushed wait while the Elders agent consulted on the phone, the agent then signalled a final bid to claim the tractor for Hercon Ag.

Hercon Ag also bought a Phillips pick up front offered by outside vendor Glenpadden Farms, for $5000.

Second top sale item, a Caterpillar Lexion 580R combine harvester with MacDon D65 draper front and comb trailer and 5458 engine hours and 3811 rotors hours, realised $75,000 and went to AD & EJ Gooding, Darkan, who, two lots later, also bought a JCB Fastrac 8250 tractor with 7200 hours for $55,000.

They had opened the bidding on the JCB at $50,000, but when no other bids were forthcoming, Mr Culleton announced "a little bit more" was needed to prevent the lot being passed in and the reserve price was agreed to by the bidder.

AD & EJ Gooding also bought the lot preceding the header - a 24 tonne Hi-Way chaser bin for $28,000.

Third top-priced item at $58,000 was a 4x4 former Country Fire Service Isuzu FSS fire truck.

It was also a sought after lot, with bidding opening at $25,000 and climbing to the winning bid from MA & BJ Szczecinski, Corrigin.

A 6x6 Volvo F16 tipping tray truck and bin sold for $12,000 to Kemminup Farms, Kojonup, and a Hino Dutro set up as a service and fuel truck sold for $4000 to Ripplemead Grazing, Tenterden.

Dual DE Engineering 1500/15 field bins sold for $44,000 to AR Brown & Co, Tambellup, while three smaller and older field bins sold to different buyers for between $12,000 and $750.

In good condition, a CGS 8t spreader attracted bidder interest and climbed in price from an opening bid of $25,000 to a winning phone bid of $42,000 from EG & LG Clausen & Son, Yelbeni.

As at other clearing sales this year, self-propelled grain augers were in demand and brought significantly higher prices than augers without wheel drive.

A self-propelled Grain Commander 469 auger in good condition sold for $17,000 to G & N Thorn, Kojonup, and an older, similar sized Grain Commander auger with hydraulic drive sold for $14,500 to Wellstead Farming Pty Ltd, Tambellup.

Roundpool farming Trust, Woodanilling, bid up to $15,000 for a DE Engineering mobile grain cleaner with assorted screens, while and older seed cleaner sold for $1500 and a Morris Concept 2000 12m air seeder bar and Morris 7180 bin with liquid capability sold for $10,500 as a complete rig to HND Trust, Mokup.

Sheep equipment included a Clipex sheep handler in near-new condition which was bought for $20,000 by Quinninup Park, Busselton, and a DE Engineering contractors' model Murray sheep handler, also in good condition, which was bought by JJ & JA Sexton, Kojonup, for $21,000.

Five Evo shearing heads with down tubes sold to three buyers for between $1700 and $1750 each.

Top item offered by outside vendors was a 2006 Toyota Hilux SR 4x4 ute with canvas canopy and 178,000 kilometres put up by Rodney Fulmer.

It sold to G & M Edgerton Warburton, Frankland, for $26,500.

A small Komatsu WA70 wheel loader sold for $11,600 and a Vicon three-point-linkage spreader in near-new condition sold for $8000, but a Volvo FH12 truck with three-deck aluminium and stainless steel stock crate failed to attract a bid at $60,000.

Despite a threat of showers, the sale attracted more than 250 people and more than 200 of them registered to bid.

Sale organiser and one of three auctioneers used on the day to get through 249 lots - of which 238 were sold - Jamie Hart, Elders Kojonup, said he thought it was a very good result for the main vendor, the Anderson family of Kit, wife Anna and children Olive, Toby and Meg.

"There was good demand for a lot of what was offered, it pretty much all sold and we didn't get rained on so in my book, that's a good sale," Mr Hart said.

Mr Anderson said the property which the family had farmed since 1994 had been leased out and the family was moving to a smaller farm at Cowaramup and planned to grow avocados.

He said he was happy with the clearing sale which netted $843,889 gross across all lots sold.