There might be two or three potential buyers at open days compared to four or five this time last year and six or seven two years ago.
This could mean vendors having just one serious buyer to deal with rather than two or three and the challenge for them is to make the most of that buyer, Dawe said.
Given the pre-spring caution over market prospects he is pleased with the first three weeks or so of activity, with success at most of the early auctions.
Tier one dairy farms have held their values well, with just slight reductions, but the value has slipped more across the tier two and three properties.
A quality Te Aroha dairy farm producing 152,418kg MS a year on 110ha sold before auction. The confidential price was very good, he said.
“It was a tier one farm and achieved a tier one result.”
Two dairy farms sold at auction in the first couple of weeks of the season.
A 58ha farm at Waitakaruru on the Hauraki Plains producing 36,800kg MS a year sold for $2.2 million, working out at nearly $38,000ha.
A 107ha farm at Lichfield producing 107,000kg MS from 330 cows sold for $3.5m, working out at $32,710ha.
Dawe said both farms might have made about 5% more if sold at this time last year.
The Waitakaruru property had just one bidder and required some negotiation to get the sale. The Lichfield farm had two bidders and needed some negotiation on the floor to get the deal done.
“Balanced on what we’ve seen so far this spring they were both good auctions. There’s still life in the marketplace.”
