Special Cattle Sale 2 March 2009 - Pre-sale Processing

The Special Cattle Auction takes place once a month and the reason for it being called ‘Special’ is that buyers come from South to bid whereas for weekly auctions there are mainly local buyers. The cattle section looks in turn at Pre-sale Processing, the Auction, Post-sale Processing and the Lairage.

When viewed from the lower level the stock pen area seemed very confusing, just a mass of barriers which were mostly at the wrong height for the photographer, but when looking down from the first floor balcony the layout and processes became much clearer. Focus at first was on the stock pens and cattle, the control area with its cattle crush and on understanding the process. It was only later, when the photographs were being analysed that the letters and the numbers on the walls were important and that they acted as a grid reference for each stock pen. It also became evident that letters lower than others on the walls signified passage ways instead of pens. Simple but effective. From above it could be seen that there was a different shaped pen which was the last pen before entry to the sale ring. The two discourses that arose were those of power and gender. All those seen in the stock area, apart from self, were men and it was clear that a man in a maroon coat at a central control area and with paperwork was controlling the allocation of lot numbers that were stuck to the rumps of cattle as they passed through a cattle crush next to the control centre.
Special Cattle Pre-Sale Processing Album