PRO-STOCK Livestock are preparing for the future with the installation of a live-stream buying platform at their Mount Compass saleyards.
Three permanently-fixed rotating cameras give online buyers a real-time look at the cattle walking around the sale ring and allow them to bid from anywhere throughout the world against saleyard attendees.
While other selling centres have trialed basic live-streams without bidding capability, Pro-Stock have developed their own online buying platform, with prospective buyers required to contact the company to register and be given log-in details to access the live feed.
Other viewers, not wanting to buy, can access a YouTube feed on 10-second delay.
Pro-Stock managing director Kym Endersby said the system would allow them and vendors to access a new group of buyers.
"Even if we get one extra buyer, it creates extra competition," he said.
"It will only be competition that drives price, nothing else."
Mr Endersby said the system had been designed as an add-on to their present selling system, not to replace it.
"We can't lose what we've already got which is bidders within the ring, nor can we interfere with those buyers," he said.
"Sometimes it doesn't suit for the buyer to be here, but if they can access the internet, they can still bid.
"It opens all of Australia and all of the world to us and our vendors."
Mr Endersby said 50 people either viewed or registered on the platform during last week's sale.
Online buyers have given positive feedback about the system and said they received stock in the condition they expected.
"Online buyers have a bid button on their screen, with the television screens in the ring changing colour when an online buyer bids to notify the selling team," he said.
"As we move into the future, I think the internet will play a larger role in livestock sales and this type of technology will become more common."