Sector Spotlight: Graham Low, Senior Auctioneer

In our last Sector Spotlight on Land-based Industries, we hear from Graham Low, Senior Auctioneer at the Orkney Auction Mart. The Mart is Orkney's only livestock market, selling sheep and cattle, as well as hosting a public cafe operated by a local butcher.

It's show season! The Mart plays a big role in ensuring the shows run smoothly. Look out for the shows happening over the next week, and keep an eye on our pages on Monday morning to find out about our next feature!

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Can you describe a typical day in your role as Senior Auctioneer?
On a typical sale day, I arrive at the Market and sort out animals before sale time. This includes batching them in their sale lots, reading tags, and processing passports and paperwork, and penning them up in our lairage. I then Auction the animals at sale time. After the sale I make sure all animals are penned up correctly and shipped away from the Mart successfully. I also prepare our sale reports for the website and for the newspaper.

On a non-sale day, I usually can be found out in the van visiting farmers and customers. I enjoy going to look at farmers livestock and advise them when best to market their stock. It also gives me the opportunity to see what animals are coming into our sales, so I can therefore get in contact with potential buyers who will hopefully purchase the animals.

I spend a lot of hours in a week, looking for fat cattle and sheep to supply our Orkney butchers, as well as acting as an agent for Kepak Macintosh Donald who slaughter for Tesco and Aldi.

I spend a lot of hours in a week carrying out valuations for livestock, house contents, farms, machinery etc. If farmers, banks, or lawyers need a valuation of something, I am qualified to carry out on their behalf.

How did you end up in this role?
I stayed on at KGS until the end of 6th year, as I genuinely didn’t know what career path I wanted to explore. I enjoyed school and I didn’t want to leave too early. My class were writing CV’s for University’s with our guidance teacher and I was pushed to apply for a music college. I didn’t want to leave Orkney, and I was a poor traveller, so I opted not to go to Uni.

An advert came in the paper for a Mart Trainee, and I wrote a CV and applied for the job. After 2 interviews, I was successful.

2 years previous to this, I was lucky to get work at the Mart during summer holidays when I was 16 and 17 years old. This included working with animals on sale days, feeding and cleaning out farm animals, cleaning and hosing Mart buildings, painting both inside and outside, fencing, draining, and tractor driving. I also helped with Furniture sales, Book sales and Implement sales. These 2 years of summer work gained me valuable knowledge of how the business operated before I applied for their full-time position.

What is the best thing about your job?
The fact that every day is different. Monday I usually am at the Mart since it’s a sale day. Tuesday I could be in Westray visiting farmers. Wednesday I could be picking fat cattle from various farms. Thursday I could be doing an Implement sale selling machinery. Friday I could be doing a farm valuation for the bank.

Every day is always exciting as there is something new to tackle. I very much enjoy the freedom of being on the road and engaging with my customers.

What is the worst thing about your job?
In our busy sales periods, there are often long hours required. In some weeks, I could be working 80+ hours in the week which takes its toll, especially when I have my own farm work and livestock to attend to at home.

What skills do you need to undertake your role?
Key skills would be: confident, outgoing, well spoken, enthusiastic, keen to learn, eager to work as part of a team, good communication skills.

Desirable traits would be: good with numbers, clear loud voice, flexible hours, able to handle criticism.

What qualifications do you have?
When I started at the Mart, there were no qualifications required. A strong personality was what they were after, and I was lucky to tick that box.

As part of my training, I did a four year course at Harper Adams University in Shropshire and became a Fellow of the Institute of Auctioneers and Appraisers of Scotland. This enabled me to be a qualified Auctioneer and Valuer.

Would you recommend this job to young people? If so, why?
I would recommend any keen individual looking for a different career path to consider a job at Orkney Mart. We are the backbone of the agricultural economy, and it is a pleasure to be involved with so many different customers and businesses on a weekly basis. It’s very rewarding to see how all the different agricultural sectors operate, and to watch them produce their stock, and to be responsible for achieving the end value of their product.

The Orkney farmers are some of the most hard-working individuals I have come across and it is always a challenge to work with them, as they have very high expectations of you to make them as much profit as possible. But everyday I learn something new and meaningful from customers and staff. Orkney loves to see young people do well, and farmers are the most excited to see young, keen individuals in the sector. So, a keen, young, enthusiastic individual will always have a place at Orkney Auction Mart.

Visit the Orkney Auction Mart on:
Website: https://orkneymart.com/
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/orkneyauctionmart/