A32-Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 21,2001
Action Of The Auction Lures, Keeps Employees At Sales Stables
(Continued from Page A2B)
people simply began to give him
orders and he worked to fill
them.
Over the years, Good has
watched prices rise. “Top driv
ing horses bring $3,000. It used
to be that $2OO was a good price
for a horse.”
Order buying is more difficult
these days, said Good. “Buying
is much harder now since the
animals are high-priced and
there is so much money involved
for the farmer,” he said.
Not only the prices but also
the market has evolved over the
years for Good, who used to buy
animals for butchers. “Inspec
tion closed the doors on smaller
butchers,’ he said. “I could
name a bunch of butchers I
bought for that the government
inspection did the same thing.”
Clerking At The Auction
John Petersheim, Ronks, has
worked at New Holland Sales
Stables since 1967. After begin
ning his tenure at the auction by
leading horses through the ring,
Petersheim now divides his time
between helping out at special
horse sales and clerking the beef
and dairy sales.
In the days before a special
horse sale the barn is filled with
dawn-until-dark activity. A
blacksmith removes shoes and
trims hooves, employees clip
and curry, and owners bring in
their draft horses and mules or
driving horses for the upcoming
auction.
“We have a lot of fun around
here on days like this,” Peter
sheim said.
In his tenure at the sale barn
he has seen the rise of animal
prices as the market keeps pace
with demand. “We sold horses
up to $BOO apiece when I first
started, and that was a high
Mid Atlantic Farm Credit
Reports To Stockholders
LOU ANN GOOD something is right in rural
Food And Family America.
Features Editor The “right” is the profitable
NEW HOLLAND (Lancaster returns the organization was
Co.) Stockholders attending able to provide to owner
one of Mid Atlantic Farm Cred- members this past year,
it’s annual meetings conducted The “wrong” is the mandated
at several sites recently discov- environmental laws forcing gen
ered something is wrong and erations of farm families off the
J. Robert Frazee, chief executive officer, and Sandy
Weaber, vice president of marketing, review Farm Credit’s
successful year by crediting the superb management of its
44-member board.
price. Now we sell them any
where from $1,500-2,000 apiece,
and that can go higher,” he said.
He believes the market for
horses will remain steady in the
coming years, especially in Lan
caster, where demand for draft
horses for fieldwork or driving
horses from the Amish and
Mennonite communities makes
the auction a hot spot.
Historically, the horses came
from the southern and western
states because “Lancaster’s
ground is too high-priced to
raise horses, and we’re more
able to farm it,” he said. Those
states are still the suppliers of
the market, he said.
Another change in the busi
ness is the look of the horses.
Petersheim believes that the
conformation quality of the ani
mals going through the ring has
improved.
A love of horses helped to
draw Petersheim to the auction.
“I always did like a public auc
tion,” he said. “I used to come in
a good bit, so they asked me to
help. When I came in I just
couldn’t get away from it.”
He said, “It’s jam-packed full
sometimes on Mondays,” he
said, estimating that the seating
surrounding the ring holds 500-
600 people. “Our special Friday
sales there are a good bit more
people. They come to visit and
to buy and sell.”
Approximately 200-250
horses are sold each Monday,
mostly riding horses and ponies
with a few draft and driving
horses.
Significance Of
The Auction
Numbers attest to the volume
of business transacted at the
auction. An average of 160
horses come through the auction
per week, along with 1,000
slaughter hogs, 400 dairy cows,
heifers, and bulls, 375 feeder
pigs, 1,200 sheep, 1,400 goats,
1,400 beef cattle, and 900 calves.
Ron Ranck has been around
sale bams since 1976, when he
sorted cattle at Vintage Sales St
ables. Later, in 1991, he began
working in the ring at New Hol
land Sales Stables. He is also a
partner in B & R Cattle Co., a
feeder cattle business.
As a ring man he gives the
auctioneer the starting price for
the cattle entering the ring. “I
evaluate what the cattle are
worth and start a few cents
below what I think they will
bring to get some activity,” he
said.
According to Ranck, auction
centers are integral to setting a
competitive market.
“If you do not have your
market anymore, direct trade
will not be the same. An auction
creates a comparison for farm
ers who are sending cattle to the
packers. They have the option, if
they feel they are not getting a
fair bid from the packer, that
they can still send to the auction.
There are places in the country
where that liberty has been elim
inated by closed livestock mar
kets.
“Sale barns establish the
market and show producers
what their cattle are worth.”
As for the future of New Hol
land Sales, Ranck believes that
the business is well-positioned
“as long as the small- to midsize
packers stay in business.”
The auction is a hub for the
kosher markets in cities
namely New York City, Balti
more, Boston, and Philadelphia.
Buyers seeking high Choice and
Prime cattle go to the sale bam
to purchase animals for the
kosher trade. Quality cattle also
are purchased for export to
Japan.
land.
Keynote speaker Bruce Vin
cent, a third generation logger
from Montana, said that loggers,
miners, and farmers are losing
their ability to manage natural
resources because of environ
mentalists manipulating the
court system.
Congress is listening to movie
stars and basing public policy
not on reality but on perception
of reality. Environmentalists
want to create a perfect world
and view the enemy as man and
capitalism.
Growing up, Vincent believed
loggers were stewards of the
forest. When he went to college,
he found out he was considered
a tree murderer.
These conflicting viewpoints
develop because most of the
nation are enjoying an incredi
ble amount of leisure time and
money to vacation in rural
areas. They want to keep pris
tine forests and countrysides.
Consequently, they go back to
their legislators and pass laws
without understanding the
effect of their decisions on
nature.
In the case of Montana
loggers, environmentalists
wanted to increase the remnant
population of grisley bears to
native levels. Vincent told how
scholars and environmentalists
proposed to try embryo trans
plants between black bears and
grisleys. Local residents realize
that these two breeds are eternal
enemies and the foolishness of
the plan. They also realized the
danger this entailed to local
families and children, but they
were told their advice wasn’t re
quested.
Environmentalists proposed
tying bells on children when
they went out to play to keep
The supply of horses for the auction traditionally conies
from western and southern states. The horses used to be
unloaded from the railroad directly into the sale bam.
Show sales go back a long way in sales stables history.
Aaron Kolb had the grand champion at the 1948 show sale.
Norman Kolb, at 16 years old, is holding the winning cow.
Bruce Vincent, a third-generation logger from Montana,
warned farmers that agriculture will suffer the same fate
as the logging industry unless they ban together to fight
the enemy ignorance.
bears from attacking the chil
dren. Of course, a few bad bear*
would eat the children, environ
mentalists admitted, but if bells
were discovered in bear “poop,”
these bears would be dealt with.
“There is a common cry for
common sense,” Vincent said of
the frustration in dealing with
the reasoning of many environ
mentalists.
Environmentalists passed
laws to prevent further logging
in the area, which resulted in too
many trees. A severe thunder
storm started 165 fires in one
night and seven million acres of
forest burned in two days. This
was the result of loggers not
being allowed to manage the
forest.
Environmentalists said they
would rather see the forest
burned than managed by man.
When Vincent spoke oiit against
them, his equipment was blown
up.
Cutting out logging liveli
hoods resulted in people without
jobs and a severely depressed
local economy. Environmental
ists proposed that the area
should become a tourist mecca.
To support the hospitals and
schools in the area, one million
tourists would be needed annu
ally an impossibility.
Evening news reports por
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