Following the announcement in October of a change to the current system of providing livestock market sales prices to industry, the Livestock Auctioneers’ Association (LAA) has today provided a comprehensive outline of how the new platform will look and the enhanced benefits it will provide.
The new platform will go live on the 1 January 2024, followed by the official launch on 9 January 2024, with a virtual launch event hosted by the LAA across social media channels.
The launch event will feature platform demonstrations and panel discussions, detailing how users can benefit from even greater insight and enhanced data sets in real-time, via the new destination for market sales prices.
Ahead of the official launch, the LAA has outlined the key features and packages that the new platform will provide, bringing people, auction markets and prices together, in one live hub.
The Market Prices platform has been built on a system that delivers the equivalent of the current service provided by AHDB, while improving data quality and reporting efficiency. It provides enhanced and additional services under a brand-new tiered range of subscription plans, tailored to meet specific industry needs.
“We recognise the importance of this vital tool, and the need to support the wider agricultural industry, through the provision of the most up-to-date and accurate data, to enable informed decision making. This is why we have designed the subscription plans, enabling users to select a package depending on the level of insight and information required,” says LAA executive secretary Chris Dodds.
While both buyers and vendors using the livestock market will continue to benefit from free access to the essential daily price updates currently available via the existing system, the LAA has also developed a series of additional subscription plans, providing new and enhanced data sets and further insights.
Subscription Plans
All users will need to subscribe and register to access free of charge data, with a series of enhanced plans available as detailed below.
- Weekly Prices – free of charge
The ‘Weekly Prices’ plan provides users with a free of charge weekly round-up of live store and finished prices across England and Wales, based on the previous week’s prices, with a two-week look back.
- Daily Prices – free of charge to mart customers (sellers and buyers) or £4.99 p/m
The ‘Daily Prices’ plan is free of charge to livestock market users, providing an equivalent to the current service, with essential daily livestock prices updated every lunchtime, alongside the data provided within the Weekly subscription plan. Users can compare by region and country, with a monthly look back.
- Real-Time Prices - £10.99 p/m
This new premium service offers a step-up over anything previously available to industry, providing real-time trade updates and livestock insights. With everything in the Daily and Weekly subscription plans, as soon as a member market completes and submits a sale, the reports will immediately appear on the platform.
A brand-new feature is the inclusion of breeding prices, on top of store and finished prices, enabling users to gain insights on breeding categories for sheep and cattle. Full comparison facilities are available, enabling the options to compare from market to market, as well as regions and country, with a 12-month look back.
- Enterprise – price on application
The most advanced service, built for use by large-scale processors and livestock businesses requiring all of the data available via the Real-Time subscription plan, but with additional access. The Enterprise plan is a bespoke service that will facilitate multi-user access, provide the functionality to download data straight into client systems, with an unlimited look back to historical sales price data.
This plan will be built with bespoke services, depending on the requirements of the client, and will be priced on application.
Free trials
“It is crucial that we continue to support users of the livestock market by providing free access to the Daily subscription plan, but the new system also enables us to offer far greater insight and functionality than has previously been available,” continues Mr Dodds.
“As such, we are offering a free, three-month trial of the Real-Time Prices subscription plan for all subscribers from 1 January – 31 March 2024 , allowing users free access to see first-hand the benefits of the enhanced data sets, in real-time,” he adds.
The new platform will be hosted on a new dedicated area of the LAA website (marketprices.laa.co.uk), providing instant access to data, wherever you are, live from 1 January 2024.
The system has also been built with the scope to expand and develop new data sets in the future, to further support industry requirements and demands.
“The move to the new platform is part of a strategic move as the LAA positions itself as the hub for all things auction mart related, providing a solution to support all of industry to progress together,” explains Mr Dodds.
“Fundamental to this strategy is the need to maintain and enhance the accurate and transparent collection and transfer of data. By working with an independent processor, we are able to reinforce those accuracies and provide industry with confidence in the new platform.
“This supports the LAA’s wider commitment, to act as a connecting hub and to provide solutions to support industry to progress and develop. We very much see the new Market Prices platform as a key catalyst to help drive this on-going commitment, while continuing to offer valuable and enhanced support to users of livestock markets,” concludes Mr Dodds.
Register now
Register your details now to get free access to the most accurate livestock market sales data from 1 January 2024 by visiting https://signup.laa.co.uk/marketprices-1/