National AuctionsPlus honour for Richmond's Stockplace Marketing

Based at Richmond, the team has been recognised as having the highest throughput for cattle nationally, while one of the partners, Luke Westaway had the highest individual throughput for cattle assessment.

It's a great result for the team of six, and one that Mr Westaway said came completely out of the blue, given that so many people nationally were now using the platform.

Last year it sold 700,000 head of cattle and had 1200 assessors, emphasising the magnitude of the awards for Stockplace Marketing.

Between Mr Westaway and fellow agency assessors Ashley Naclerio and James Coates, they claimed the best agency throughput in Australia by a margin of 30 per cent, with over 150 AuctionsPlus transactions over the year.

Mr Westaway's individual throughput was 2000 head higher than the next best assessor.

A combination of rain in southern states stimulating demand and prices, and pandemic restrictions facilitating online transactions, contributed to the outcome, but Mr Westaway also put a proportion of the result down to AuctionsPlus being an excellent platform to market large groups of cattle on, in a way that suited potential buyers.

"You can easily do what the market wants, and turn what you have into three-deck lots or whatever," he said. "The flexibility is good."

Stockplace Marketing's biggest AuctionsPlus client sold 3000 head through the system.

Mr Westaway said having three accredited assessors meant that if anyone wanted an appraisal, that could be quickly done and entered into the system.

It's his 20^th year in Richmond, 15 of them with TopX before bringing Stockplace Marketing into being.

"We have a lot of committed vendors that trust our advice, and we're grateful that they entrust us to do this work," Mr Westaway said.

"We've also got a lot of repeat AuctionsPlus buyers, which we're proud of.

"We always have satisfied buyers from our descriptions."

About half the business's cattle sales are paddock sales but just under a third are AuctionsPlus sales, and Mr Westaway said the 10 to 20 per cent premium gained by selling online added to its attraction.

"There's more work to muster twice but it does deliver results," he said.

The team, which includes Sara Westaway, Susan Coates and Anna Propsting, is also doing a significant share of property marketing in the state's north west, encountering very high demand, particularly north of the tick line.

Mr Westaway said there had been a lot of unlisted sale transactions.

"We have plenty more years to come - we're solidly established now," he said.

According to AuctionsPlus, 2021 was a year that would be remembered for regular records breaking across both the sheep and cattle markets, for great seasonal conditions and a return of confidence and optimism across the sector.

Riverina Livestock Agents based at Wagga, NSW took the honours for the fourth consecutive year for the top combined sheep and cattle throughput agency.

Geoff McDougall from Nutrien Ag Solutions at Hay, NSW was recognized as last year's highest throughput assessor for sheep on the platform.

Strong seasonal conditions supported Elders Kingston in South Australia in becoming the highest throughput agency for sheep over the year.

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