The "Header Buying Indicator"

Extracted from the Farm Tender weekly Newsletter - Sign up and get the email every Wednesday morning before 6 am. www.farmtender.com.au

We have been at this online selling stuff for nearly 10 years now, and over the course of that time, we have come to the conclusion that Headers are bloody hard to sell.

But in the last 2 years, we have sold more Headers, way more in fact, than the previous 8 before that. To add to that, we have had the best fortnight ever.

So what's that telling us? For me, it's a confidence thing. But not just fleeting confidence, it's confidence like never before. Farmers are happy to make the substantial investment in a Header, knowing they are in a position to do so. They have profound long term confidence in what they are doing.

So to us, our newly made up confidence measuring stick, the HBI (Header Buying Indicator), like the EYCI (Eastern Young Cattle Indicator), is at an all-time high.

We sold just as many Headers up to this time last year as we have this year, but the HBI is much higher this year. So why is that?

Last year we cleared a lot of units under $100k. This year the average price paid per unit is substantially higher. For example, in the previous fortnight, 4 of the 7 units sold between $295k and $519k. There was nothing like that last year.

In summary, the HBI reaches its peak only when individual Farmers confidence is at an all-time high. They invest in Headers at a higher rate (price) than ever before. So, at the moment, there are more Farmers at that point than we have ever seen in the 10 years we have been alive.

It's a fun way to put it..... If anything....