The reason that there are two sorting days for some sales is because we have too many cattle listed for that sale to do it all in one day. Therefore, we need you to come in on the sort day you said you would. It can really cause havoc when people switch in mid stream without letting us know. We know what happens. People list their cattle for the Thursday sort day. Then they phone their trucker. He can not come on Thursday but can come on Friday. So they switch to Friday but do no bother calling us back to switch their appointment to Friday. Why not let us know? It is just a phone call. If enough people do this, we put in a slow Thursday and are overloaded on Friday. We need your co-operation if we are going to keep line ups to a minimum.
The term “the sale is full” is misleading. There is limit as to how many we can actually sort, weigh and pen in one day. We could hold and sell eight thousand head in one day, but to sort, weigh and pen that many takes more man hours than we can supply efficiently.
When we cut a sale off and say “the sale is full” it would be more accurate and better English to say “Both sorting (or weighing) days are fully booked”. The sale is seldom full; the sorting days do get maxed out however.
For example when you book your cattle to come in on a Thursday, and be weighed up for a Saturday sale day, that means your appointment is for Thursday. If you want to change it, you should phone us to see if we can work you in on Friday. Many people believe that they are booked in for the Saturday sale and it doesn’t matter which sort day come in on. It does matter. We cannot sort four thousand head on one day then only do one thousand on the other day. We have to be able to plan or balance our work load. Busy people should understand that.
