Young farmers committing to bidding battles under brutal conditions was a highlight of last week's clearing sale for Greengables Pastoral Co near Nyabing.
With a temperature of 43 degrees Celsius in the shade and blast-furnace-hot north-east wind whipping up dust willy willies, about 200 people attended and more than 140 registered to bid in the sale which, in some of the 198 lots, offered something different to other sales so far this year.
At $230,000, the top item was the last-lot Morris 9445 tow-between air seeding cart with Gen4 liquid system.
It was displayed with the second-last lot Ausplow DBS Auseeder E-Series frame, set up with 55 tynes at 300 millimetre spacing, rebushed modules, Groundhog points, new press wheels and liquid to seed or furrow capability.
The seeding bar sold for $166,000 as the third top item.
For a total spend of $396,000, Nathan Mudie,
GM & EV Mudie, West River, claimed both lots, but only after seeing off determined competition twice in nerve-testing bidding duels.
Nutrien Ag Solutions auctioneer Mark Warren accepted $95,000 as an opening bid on the seeding bar, but competing bids drove the price up in $2000 increments, with Mr Mudie in a bidding duel with another farmer.
Having succeeded in buying the bar, a confident Mr Mudie opened bidding on the air cart with an offer of $90,000, but a second bidding duel ensued, again with price jumps of $2000, until Mr Mudie also saw off the second farmer.
Mr Mudie's father had called on vendor Paul Berger and inspected the seeding bar and air cart in the week before the sale.
Impressed by their condition, he and his son had decided before sale day what they were prepared to spend on each item, so Mr Mudie could bid confidently up to his limits.
"We were sort of going for a second one (seeding outfit) to take the pressure off our existing outfit," Mr Mudie said.
"We're cropping up to 9000 hectares, so one (seeding outfit operating) around the clock (to get seeding completed promptly) adds a bit of pressure.
"We're hoping a second bar will help reduce that pressure a bit."
Minutes earlier, young neighbouring farmers from Wandering and Wickepin engaged in a similar bidding duel for the second top sale item, a Fendt 927 Vario 205 kiloWatt 4x4 tractor with Topcon X30 guidance, stubble mats and 4610 engine hours.
With his brother Lewis watching on, Bailey Parsons, DR & EC Parsons, Wandering, and Jordan Flavel, Wickepin, with his father Conrad by his side, went bid for bid, pushing the price up from $90,000 until a successful final bid of $167,000 by Mr Parsons.
"We're neighbours, our properties are next to each other," Mr Parsons said of his bidding competitor.
"This is our first Fendt we've got into, we're usually New Holland.
"It will be a second tractor for our sprayer and spreader.
"We haven't tried them (European tractors) before, this is our first, but we got into this mainly for the comfort and ride of the Fendt."
Starter bidder Derek Curwen, Tooraweenah Pastoral Co, South Stirlings, claimed a second big tractor, a tracked Caterpillar Challenger MT855 with 8429 engine hours, with a call of $142,000 - more than double his starting bid.
Mr Curwen also bought a 1997 Sanderson Telehandler with a variety of attachments for $35,000.
An older Ferguson 4270 tractor with Trima front-end loader and hay forks sold for $33,000 and a JCB Fastrac 185-65 sold for $16,000.
A grain road train of two tipping triaxle trailers and tandem bogie sold to AM & RP Walton & Co, Ardath near Bruce Rock, for $155,000, but the 1998 Detroit-powered Freightliner FL112 prime mover was put up as a separate lot and initially passed in when bidding stalled at $13,000.
It was later sold to Gnowangerup graziers DO Gaze & Co for $22,000.
A 1993 4x4 Isuzu FTS crew cab truck set up as a fire tanker/service vehicle sold for $14,500 and three utes with steel trays sold for between $18,000, for a 2017 VW Amarok dual cab, and $2400, for a 2012 Ford Courier single cab.
Two CLAAS combine harvesters, both with 12.2 metre fronts and comb trailers - an older Lexion 580R with 4370 engine hours and 3235 rotor hours and a Lexion 600 with fewer engine and rotor hours - were initially passed in.
But the 580R was sold before the sale ended for $75,000.
A Miller Nitro 5333 self-propelled sprayer with alloy 45.7m boom failed to attract a bid at the auctioneer's call of $140,000 and a trailed Sonic 7015S sprayer, also with 45.7m boom, was initially passed in at $16,000, but sold later for $20,000.
A tandem-axle semitrailer set up as a chemical batching plant with two tanks sold to a phone bidder for $16,500.
Strong bidding competition saw a 25 tonne Trufab chaser bin go for $65,000, an 85t Trufab field bin for $35,000 and an older 50t field bin for $10,000.
A variety of self-propelled grain augers sold for between $3200 and $16,000, depending on tube length and diameter and a 250mm swing-away PTO-driven GrainKing auger seemed a bargain at $6000, when an old International 976 tractor was thrown in to drive it.
With Mr Berger retiring after a working life farming in the Nyabing district, he and his family are moving to Perth and the property has been leased out.
He came to the area and started farming with his brother in 1967 and purchased the farm where the sale was held, in 1988.
"We've had some good years here," Mr Berger said.
"Last year was fairly average, but the two prior to that were very good.
"I had always planned to retire when I got to 70 and I'm there now."
Nutrien Ag Solutions' Gnowangerup agent Glen Phelps who organised the sale, said he was happy with the result.
"Everything sold really well, all we have left is one of the CLAAS headers and the Miller Nitro sprayer," Mr Phelps said.
"That result is a credit to Paul in setting up the sale and the presentation of the machinery.
"I also thought the auctioneers Mark and Ben (Hankinson) and the rest of the Nutrien staff did a fantastic job in extremely uncomfortable conditions on the day," he said.
