Local Bot Farmers Rejoice As Price Of Australian Bot Skyrockets Due To Ukrainian Strikes

ERROL PARKER | Editor-at-large | Contact

Local bot producers are enjoying their strongest season in a decade, with Ukrainian strikes on Russian infrastructure driving a sharp fall in imported turn-off.

The national bot indicator cleared $9.40 per thousand interactions on Thursday, with agents reporting strong competition across all classes of disgruntled Australian.

At the Roma Saleyards this week, heavy commenters sold to $12.80, while a tidy line of verified small business owners made $14.20.

"Anything with a bit of age and a vehicle in the profile is making good money," stock agent Peter Haines said.

"There's very little rubbish coming through. Good Aussie produce, great to see."

Channel Country grower Malcolm Price said the improved market had justified carrying low-follower accountss through another season.

"We were going to cull the whole 2019 drop," he said.

"Now we've got NextDC ringing the house, this other kind of AI has been a real boon for us out west. We have good native digital pasture and more bandwidth on the horizon before the crunch."

Price runs a self-replacing operation west of town, backgrounding young accounts in caravan and fishing groups before finishing them on Sky News clips and Betoota Advocate articles.

He said locally bred stock had performed well against cheaper imports.

"The Russian bot can present nicely, but you'll occasionally get one wishing everyone a good Australian Thanksgiving. Buyers will discount that. You got Indonesia ones using US English as well, that'll be less desirable from a market perspective as the season goes on."

Restocker demand also strengthened, with producers holding back maiden accounts to rebuild numbers.

Agents cautioned that increased stocking rates would put pressure on available bandwidth and possibly flag internal controls with the Big Americans like Meta, while buyers continued to favour accounts with sound posting histories and no visible Cyrillic or women in hijabs.

Most of Tuesday's yarding in Roma went to a single undisclosed buyer seeking immigration-related engagement.

Price said the forward order book was full through Christmas.

"It's unheard of really, we’re getting $11 a thousand to say the country has gone to shit ten different ways," he said.

"You’d have to be happy with that, wouldn't ya?"

More to come.