Few people have given more or achieved as much in Scottish auctioneering than George Purves, who following just shy of 50 years in the industry has stepped down as managing director of United Auctions – to give the ‘young ones a chance.’
Mr Purves, or George as he’s known to all, would be celebrating 48 years in livestock auctioneering on June 6, but has decided to take early retirement to spend more time with family.
“The business is in great heart with a fantastic team of staff behind it so it’s time to let them drive the company forward,” he said.
“There are so many good, young, motivated people coming through and I have absolutely no fears that they will continue to move the company forward in a professional and successful manor to meet the demands of a new farming era.
Despite livestock and indeed farm numbers having fallen dramatically on a national basis over the past decade, George also remains hugely confident for the livestock and the auctioneering professions.
“There are a huge number of young enthusiastic people out there who still want to buy and sell livestock and there are a lot of farmers who enjoy selling through the live auction mart. Farmers like to show the quality of their stock off when prices are good, but to do that, they have to have trust in their auctioneers. The whole auctioneering business is built on trust,” he said.
George has been managing director of United Auctions since 2016 when he, Christopher Sharp, Donald Young and John Roberts, completed a management buyout of the UA Group.
More sheep and cattle sold on daily basis
Since then, United Auctions has gone from strength to strength in the number of livestock being sold through its store cattle and sheep events, but also through its prime sheep sales on a Thursday, which in recent weeks have seen up to 12,000 head forward.
Meanwhile, their store cattle sales regularly attract in excess of 1800 head on a weekly basis, and buyers from all corners of the UK.
Not to be outdone, UA continues to dominate many of the breeding sheep and cattle sales in terms of quality, numbers and prices achieved, while the Stirling Bull Sales in February, May and October, always produce some of the best and highest bids for commercial and pedigree breeders’ bulls and females.
Such sales don’t happen overnight though and a huge amount of work goes on behind the scenes.
For George, that has meant leaving his family home in Selkirk at 6am or earlier to head to the market which could be at United Auctions’ base at Stirling, Dalmally, Oban or Huntly, and not getting home until anytime between 7.30pm and midnight. Rarely does he stay away the night before, although he does make the exception when travelling to Lairg, now that speed cameras have been installed on the A9!
And, from the middle of August through until the end of November, it’s six days a week.
George’s auctioneering career began on June 6, 1977, after leaving school at the age of 15 to go and work for W Bosomworth and Sons, in Edinburgh. Ironically, that company was taken over by United Auctions the following week, but was still trading as Bosomorths with the youngster working under the great Mr Cliff – as he was known – Bosomworth.
Pedigree Hereford cattle sales
Located in the centre of Edinburgh, these were the days when the traditional breeds reigned, with the mart being the main centre for pedigree Hereford bull and female sales. One of their biggest events, was in 1978, when the February sales featured no fewer than 444 Hereford bulls and females.
As a sheep man through and through with his father being a shepherd at Arrivain, Tyndrum, George always wanted to work with sheep, and while there was no farm to come home to, he opted for the route of sheep auctioneer.
His first venture into the auctioneer’s box was in 1979, selling old ewes and tups, but that was almost after a full day’s work which included drawing the sheep into the various lots, starting with the lean ewes. That sale would commence at 2pm and they’d be finished up by 8pm, on a day that would also see the auctioning of store cattle, up to 400 fat cattle and prime lambs.
Four years later in 1981, George moved to Olivers Auction Mart in Edinburgh to sell the cast sheep and a decade later took on the role of head sheep auctioneer at John Swan and Sons which was also then based in the capital.
In moving to John Swans, his auctioneering skills stepped up a gear too with the firm conducting many of the Suffolk Sheep Society’s pedigree ram and females sales. George was the man in the box who chapped the hammer down on the 1993 Edinburgh champion, Pankymoor Prelude which sold for a former record price of 22,000gns in a three-way split to Jimmy Douglas, Cairness; Kenny and Bruce Mair, Muiresk and Robyn Hulme, Crosemanor.
He also oversaw the Kelso Ram Sales in it’s heyday when there would be up to 8500 tups forward and no fewer than 12 rings of Suffolks.
Foot-and-mouth disease
It wasn’t all glamour though. The outbreak of foot-and-mouth disease in 2001, was one of the worst years for farmers up and down the country and it was the same for auctioneers who spent months on end on the ‘phone, trying to work out ways to ‘move’ livestock from farm to farm/collection centres/abattoirs.
However, after an extremely challenging and devastating six to eight months which saw the demise of smaller auction marts and prime pig sales, George was head hunted by United Auctions to take over the prime sheep operation at the company’s Stirling and Perth sites.
Since then, the number of commercial and indeed breeding sheep sold through UA has increased out of all recognition, with Stirling boasting the biggest prime entries in Scotland on a weekly basis and often the highest numbers in GB.
Furthermore, Scotch Mule ewe lambs and gimmers, multi-breed ram and the Blackface female and ram sales have also soared in recent times at Stirling, Dalmally and Huntly, with George at the helm.
Ram sale records
While he has stood back to give the junior auctioneers the experience of selling at such major events, George has sold rams to £90,000 and 90,000gns in 2010 and 2011 for a Dalchirla Blackface shearling from Ian Hunter at Dalmally and Ardlea Arbennig, a Suffolk ram lamb from Pat Greaney at Stirling, respectively.
“Every day is a good day at the market, but the breeding sheep and the tup sales are the icing on the cake,” he said. “That’s when you get the most people at the market, the atmosphere and the craic. More and more people now recognise the benefits of selling livestock through the live ring, because there’s a market for all types of stock. One man’s meat can be another man’s poison.
“Sale day in the box is more of a show day, because the hard work of getting the vendors and the buyers there has already been done. For any auctioneer, the highlight of a sale is knowing they’ve made a difference to the end sales for all vendors, by having the right people there to buy the stock.”
While there is nothing to beat selling livestock at record breaking prices, the industry has had some huge challenges to overcome
“Foot-and-mouth was the worst tragedy to hit the sector when so much livestock was wiped out. BSE in 1996 was bad for the cattle industry, but the sheep sector benefitted from it, whereas foot-and-mouth changed the world when it also put so many small abattoirs out of business.
“Disease is ultimately the biggest threat to the industry when it devalues everything and foot-and-mouth is undoubtedly the worst. “
There is no doubting livestock farming has changed beyond recognition, since George first stepped into the auctioneer’s rostrum and not all for the good. However, with the demand for beef having soared to new heights and finished cattle trading for more than £7 per deadweight kg or £3000 per head, he believes farmers are at long last receiving what they duly deserve when inflation is taken into account.
“The last three months have seen prices back up to where they were pre BSE when you taken into inflation over the past 30 years into account.
“When I was born there were 3bn people living on the planet and now there are 8.1bn and most people want to eat red meat, so there is a great future for our industry.
The government just has to change its policy because it’s not the cattle that are to blame for increasing greenhouse gas emissions, it’s the number of cars and aeroplanes.
“There is something wrong when you can buy a pound of beef or lamb mince that will feed a family of four for the same price as a cup of coffee,” concluded George.
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