[2-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 6,1985
e:
Going to a farm auction
There’s something very special
about a farm auction. I guess more
than anything else it’s because it
signals the end of something. I’ve
had occasion recently to attend
several such auctions. These
weren’t the forced sales that you
hear so much about in the media
these days. They just happened to
be older farmers who for various
reasons, probably including the
sad state of the agricultural
economy, had chosen 1985 to retire.
And so, they had lined up for all
to see their possessions, farm
machinery, livestock, crops,
furniture, junk, virtually
everything but the clothing on their
backs and the cars they drive.
Then they invited the world, or
what seemed like a considerable
part of it, to stop by, take a look,
bid if they so desired, and maybe
take something home.
Nothing draws a crowd like a
farm auction. If you get there
early, you can find a place within
reasonable hiking distance of the
sale, but if you arrive late, forget
it. You can walk a mile. Depending
on what you’re there to buy, a late
arrival may be the prudent thing
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_ J
Farm
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because the auctioneer can go on
for hours selling what is loosely
labeled as junk-all of those small
items that accumulate around a
long-time farming operation.
It’s funny how the auction for
mat seems to be the same
regardless of the auctioneer or the
location. The small items are piled
on flatbed wagons and sold first.
Then to the machinery, usually
starting with the tractors and
ending up with the combine, if
there is one. And finally the
livestock and any feed that’s on
hand.
As the auctioneer mounts the
first wagon and details the terms
of the sale, the crowd starts to
close in making it virtually im
possible for all but a few pressed
against the wagon bed to see much
of anything. Then with the help of a
couple of assistants the auctioneer
grabs up anything of seeming
value and offers it to the highest
bidder. Those things that don’t
attract bidders are piled together
and sold as a final “everything
that’s left on the wagon.
It always impresses me when I
attend a farm auction how ex-
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pen;.At lami equipment is when
it s purchased new and how
inexpensive some of it is a few
years later at a farm auction. I’m
also impressed by how relatively
inexpensively a young farmer can
equip himself with the necessary if
not the most ideal farm equipment.
I know a new combine sells for
more than $lOO,OOO, but at recent
farm auctions I’ve seen ready-to
go used ones sell for under $20,000
and ones that probably need a good
going over before summer harvest
sell for under $lO,OOO.
I’ve watched strong diesel
tractors bring five or six thousand
dollars at a farm auction while
their new counterparts stand
waiting on the dealer’s lot with
forty and fifty thousand dollar
price tags. Granted these older
tractors lack heated cabs and air
conditioning, but they don’t lack
horsepower and serviceability.
As I looked at those farm auction
equipment inventories, 1 was also
impressed with the amount of
equipment some farmers find
necessary or desirable. None had
less than three tractors, some as
many as five or six, and at a couple
of those auctions I got the feeling
the farm operator was equipping
some kind of agricultural ark with
two of almost everything
mechanical.
There would be two hay balers,
two manure spreaders, two
sprmgtooth harrows, two corn
planters and on down the list.
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Almost everything that could be
fastened to a farm tractor was
represented, usually in pairs,
maybe one newer than the other or
larger, but nonetheless duplicated
by another piece of equipment.
Every tractor ever owned was
there from the first little Ford or
Farmall H bought in the late 30s to
the newest International, John
Deere, or White. There was even
some horse-drawn equipment at a
couple of those sales.
There’s one thing about an
auction-it’s a way of getting nd of
whatever is for sale. If the auc
tioneer finds something that seems
to have no value, he puts it with
something that does, and together
they find a home. And so by the end
of a long day, everything has been
sold, and a day or so later it’s all
been hauled away.
It must be a very emotional time
for those retiring farmers wat
ching their farm machinery and
livestock loaded onto someone
else’s truck and leaving the farm
for the last time. No doubt some of
those farmers looked forward to
that day when they could sell out,
cash in and find a well-earned
retirement.
Watching one old dairy farmer
who I would have guessed to be 75,
I had the feeling that he didn’t
really want to give up. He seemed
to have a well-run, solid little dairy
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farm that would support a family,
but he was just too old to continue.
He could no longer meet the rigors
of twice-a-day milking and a full
schedule of field work. Probably
his health was failing; I couldn’t
tell, but for whatever reason, he
was selling out.
It was all there in the morning
sunshine for his neighbors and
everyone else to see. It was piled in
a circle around his house and
stretched on either side of the lane
toward the highway, an ac
cumulation of a half century of
farming and living. It was sold to
friends and strangers for whatever
it would bring. And by the end of
the day most of it was already
loaded and on its way to some new
use.
When I returned a few days later
to pick up my purchase, a new man
was already occupying the place-a
young dairyman who was obvious
during the auction carefully
buying the things he thought he
needed to get started.
So farm auctions are held and
farmers come and go, but farming
continues. The equipment may
change hands and different people
may be doing the work, but the
land is still farmed. That’s
something to think about when you
consider the current farm crisis
and our long-term continuing need
for food.
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