Page 19 - 2020 NZ Hereford Magazine

Industry Focus
Bid!

Do I hear

one more?

Bid!

NO ON-FARM BULL SALE WOULD BE
COMPLETE WITHOUT AN AUCTIONEER.

NEW ZEALAND IS BLESSED TO HAVE A FEW
GEMS CHOOSING THIS CAREER PATH –

ONE OF THEM IS WAIKATO’S CAM HEGGIE.

THIS PAGE, TOP TO BOTTOM: Auctioning cattle is Cam Heggie’s
WORDS / PHOTOGRAPHS KATE TAYLOR passion; A cartoon Cam Heggie lookalike.

“THERE’S GUSTO ABOUT THIS FELLOW. Laughter all around. Another piece of cake anyone?
REAL SUBSTANCE.” “He’s well known for his moustache,” Dean says.
“HE’S A REAL CURVE BENDER.” “Someone commented he looked like Asterix. Someone
“LOOK AT THE MUSCLE ON THIS CHAP.” else laughed as said, ‘no, I think you mean Obelix’.”
Actually, he looks like Warner Brothers’ Looney Tunes
No, we’re not talking about PGG Wrightson auctioneer Cam Heggie, character, Yosemite Sam!
although his reputation does go before him; those are quotes from
Cam at some of this year’s on-farm Hereford auctions around the “I WOULDN’T DOUBLE YOU UP.
North Island. A quick Google search for auctioneer lingo reveals the HONEST CAM THE FARMERS’ FRIEND;
sentence ‘creating a mesmerising, melodious patter’. Not quite the THAT’S WHAT THEY CALL ME.”
way you’d describe Cam’s voice, but the man himself is larger than
life; always with a ready grin over that famous moustache. So how does one become a stud stock auctioneer?
While talking about bulls and rams takes a lot of his time, Let’s go back to the start of Cam’s working career.
it’s the breeders who Cam is in the business for. Names and The former Palmerston North Boys’ High School student
places rattle off his tongue. The job has taken him to many grew up in an urban environment but knew a lot of rural kids. He
places geographically, he knows and likes hundreds of breeders always wanted to be involved with farming but didn’t want to be
of all varieties, and he has shared countless cups of coffee a farmer. So he started his
over farmhouse kitchen tables. One such cuppa is at Hukaroa working life as the office
Hereford Stud with Dean and Lisa Hansen. Lisa remembers junior for Dalgety Crown
hearing some of Cam’s banter at a bull sale in the Far North. in Palmerston North in
“He said ‘this bull is as quiet as… well, it’s as quiet as my 1986, went through the
cat’. So I thought one of our two-year-old bulls was extremely Wrightson-Dalgety merger,
quiet so I wrote in the catalogue, ‘this bull is quiet, super quiet, did a stint with Elders in
as quiet as the auctioneer’s cat’. Cam’s been great for business. Waikanae, and then moved
He has never passed a bull in at our sale.” to Feilding, where part of
“No pressure,” Cam laughs. his role was working with
“You have to have a good auctioneer – it can really make or a chap named Ray Moss.
break a sale,” Dean adds. “He was the stud stock
So what’s Cam like when he’s in full stride? rep in the area and ran
“Melodic. Easy on the ear,” Lisa says. the national sales. Back
“Hard on the eye though,” Dean retorts. in those days it was run
“…and you have to be thick-skinned to be an auctioneer,” over four days in Pascal
adds Cam. Street in Palmerston North.
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