MISSISSIPPI STATE -- Record-setting sales were posted at the 2005 Mississippi State University livestock auction, which featured two interactive video bidding sites.

The 23rd annual Mississippi Agricultural and Forestry Experiment Station Production Sale was held Nov. 17 at the Mississippi Horse Park in Starkville and featured 107 lots of Angus, Charolais and Hereford bulls, commercial bred heifers, Quarter Horses and Thoroughbreds.

“The sale consisted of livestock from MAFES research stations throughout Mississippi,” said MSU animal scientist Jane Parish. “The sale brought in a record $132,000, which will go back into the livestock research programs.”

The highest price paid for an animal at the sale was $3,000 for a coming 2-year-old Angus bull from the campus research herd.

Beef cattle at the 2005 sale were equipped with radio frequency identification, or RFID, devices.

“This was our first production sale with animals equipped with the electronic animal identification technology,” Parish said. “The adoption of the technology has enhanced MAFES’ record-keeping capabilities and complemented the already extensive performance information available for the animals at the sale.”

Another new feature of the 2005 sale was interactive video bidding sites in Hattiesburg and Raymond. Buyers at the video bidding locations could view the sale in real time and place bids through MSU Extension area livestock agents Roy Higdon and Mike Keene.

Higdon was the agent in charge of the Raymond site and said 17 bidders registered at that location.

“We didn’t have a winning bid, but there was some active bidding by the participants,” Higdon said. “There was a lot of interest from our producers. It’s definitely something we would like to do again.”

There were fewer bidders at the Hattiesburg site, but they came away with several animals.

“We had four bidders, and they bought two horses and two bulls,” Keene said. “It was a big help for our producers not to have to make the trip to campus for the sale. I think we’ll have more participation next time.”

The MAFES Production Sale is held the third Thursday in November each year and is a hands-on educational experience for students in the managing livestock sales class in the Department of Animal and Dairy Sciences at MSU.

“Students performed tasks ranging from livestock preparation and handling to ringman and photography,” Parish said. “They learned the ins and outs of marketing livestock through a production sale, as well as how to represent the university in a professional manner through their work with sale planning and operations.”