An Auction Market: Farming

An auction market is a vital tool in how farmers sell their livestock. When a farmer wants to sell their livestock they put them on an auction market in order to get bids on the cattle from across the country. Such places as other farms, which may use the stock as breeders, or in some other places like slaughter houses that will slaughter the livestock for their meat in order to sell to stores and restaurants. The bid price of the cattle is based on the grade that the cow receives, based on the quality of meat it will produce. This method can act like the stock market when there is a shortage of meat the price will go up and the same if there is a surplus - the price will go down causing farmers to maybe take their stock off the market until the market rebounds. Auction markets allow farmers the convenience of not having to take their livestock to a live auction to be sold. This takes away from having to transport the livestock. Since transportation costs can hinder the profit that a farmer makes and also there is

little risk of losing the stock to death or disease during transportation. This allows more profit to be made, which with the disappearance of the American farm anything that can be done to keep farmers going is helpful. Everyday developers are trying to buy land to build more housing or shopping and the farmers sell because they can’t make enough money to feed their stock let alone feed themselves, so they take the money and start new lives and careers in the urban world. The less farming there is the more the country depends on foreign imports, which slowly starts a domino effect on the economy. Auction Markets are a valuable tool that help farmers sell their stock for fair market value.