The auction block for heritage livestock.

Why we are building it

HoofnHorn started the way most farm projects start. Someone got tired of how a thing worked and thought there had to be a better way to do it.

What that community has never had is a place to trade with confidence. Buying a good animal usually means sending real money to somebody you have never met. Selling one means trusting a stranger at the other end. We are building the venue where both sides are known before they trade, and where HoofnHorn stands behind the sale.

The people who raise these breeds already know each other. They talk bloodlines at shows, encourage the newcomers, and hand buyers to each other when they cannot fill an order themselves. We are building the venue that community has been working around.

Raise registered stock long enough and you stop reading the history and start adding to it. The breeding decisions made this season become the pedigrees somebody studies in twenty years.

What you get

For sellers

• Your animal never leaves your pasture

  No trailer ride, no sale barn, no mixing with stock from a dozen herds on a dozen health protocols. It ships from your place straight to the buyer's.

• The papers sit on the listing

  Pedigree, registration, health records and conservation status go up with the photographs. A registered animal should not be sold like a commodity.

• Sell from your own farm

  No sale day, no hauling, no night away from the place. You run the auction from the kitchen table and the buyers come to you.

• You only pay when it sells

  No listing fees, no entry fees, no commission on a no-sale, and no fuel and hotel bill to get there. A closing fee on a completed sale, and nothing before it.

For buyers

• You know who you are dealing with

  Breeders are verified before they can sell, and bidders are approved before they can bid. That is how a real auction has always worked. Only the screen is new.

• You read the papers before you bid

  Pedigree, registration and health records sit on the listing, not in a message thread after you have committed.

• What you bid is what you pay

  No premium added at the hammer.

• We stand behind the sale

  Bidding with people you have not met should not mean taking a risk on them. If a sale does not go through, you are not left out of pocket for it.

And it should still be fun. Half of what makes a sale worth attending is watching two people go after the same cow. That does not have to disappear because the bidding moved online.

Start listing in September

Bidding opens October 22 at 1 PM Eastern.

1. September Register your farm and list your animals. You can add your animals with their photos, papers and pedigrees as soon as you are verified. Auctions do not start until October 22, so you have several weeks to get your listings ready.
2. October 22 The first auctions go live. Everything you listed in September goes to auction.