At least 300 farmers from around Otago attended the annual PGG Wrightson auction.
"I did a bit of extra work yesterday and the day before so I could have the day off," Waikouaiti farmer Mick Cockburn said yesterday.
"I'm looking for bargains, but I haven't spotted any yet. There are half a dozen of us down from Waikouaiti for the day."
The lots featured everything from tractors, concrete mixers, irrigators, boats, tyres, bird cages, scythes, fencing equipment, chainsaws, fishing equipment and dog boxes to a pink child's bicycle and a motorised golf trundler.
"That would be as old as me," Mr Cockburn mused over an English-made RotoGardener rotary hoe.
"I've always liked the old gear. All my equipment on the farm is old, because you know it can handle it. These new tractors with all their press buttons . . . I have enough trouble with the TV buttons."
The offerings were "much the same as it's always been", Mr Cockburn said.
"But there's not the crowd there used to be.
"You used to have these paddocks full of stuff," he says, gesturing around the surrounding farmland. You'd to be here all day till the afternoon and, eventually, you'd get sick of it and go home. But it's always been a good chance to catch up with everybody."
PGG Wrightson head auctioneer Robin Gamble said 276 people registered for the auction.
"The recent lack of farm sales and clearing sales meant it was quite enthusiastic and we had almost a total clearance," he said.
"The general opinion in Otago and Southland seems to be that the big machinery auction sales are a thing of the past now, with the internet and everything.
"But this is still one of the rural events of the year."
