Leitrim farmer Noel McKeon has launched Ireland’s first “all in one” agriculture auction website which he has called ‘Bidsell’.
McKeon has been working on the website for the last year and a half, trying to create a community where farmers could “buy and sell freely”.
He came up with the idea during the Covid-19 pandemic, which saw new imposed restrictions on local marts.
“Being a part-time farmer, I know that you can be very busy, you have work or family commitments and I thought to myself that there has to be an easier way of doing this.
“With other websites, you have to take a lot of phone calls and people come around for a chat, probably with no intention of buying your product, it’s not really optimal,” McKeon told Agriland.
He was also inspired by his father who he said was “so great” at buying and selling in the 1940s and 50s.
How the auction works
Any farmer can make an advertisement or bid on the website for free. The vendor sets a reserve price for the product and the end date for the auction.
When the auction reaches its end date, the highest bid over the reserve price is the winning bid. The site then emails the vendor and the buyer each other’s contact details.
The site also has an advertisement facility for people seeking services in their locality.
This section has a “reverse auction” option for people looking for a service, where the lowest bid wins and matches the advertiser and respondents contact details.
Details on how to navigate the website and create an account are available via a video on the Bidsell website.
The site currently has 17 categories. Most of the categories are agricultural related, but there are some non-agricultural categories, such as bicycles, furniture, home, and DIY.
McKeon recognised that other similar websites could be “costly” for farmers, so made this completely free. At the moment, the site is actually costing him money.
“Down the road if there is a huge demand for it, I may need to charge a small fee to improve it and make a better service,” McKeon said.
McKeon doesn’t think ideas like this, and the move to buying and selling online will effect mart attendance at all.
“The marts can handle very large numbers of cattle in the one day and they will always be there. It’s not a threat to the marts whatsoever, it’s just another option,” McKeon said.