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| Reader anxious about declining number of livestock sale barns |
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Farm World Editor,
Recently I read an article in your publication that has me concerned. First let me say I am no large-scale farmer or rancher. I did grow up on a farm. My family had about 600 acres tillable in northern Bartholomew and southern Johnson counties. As a young man in FFA and 4-H, my parents had just enough livestock hogs and cattle to keep us boys busy.
The story revolved around the closing of the Knightstown Livestock Auction (GIPSA orders Knightstown Livestock Auction to close, page 2C, July 21, 2010). As someone who holds an Indiana Auctioneers License, I understand the reasons why the auction was closed. The rules of how you handle “other people’s money” are pretty specific. I must say I am truly sorry to see this happen. Thus, I am ready to explain my concern.
As a kid I remember the abundance of farm-animal and farm-related supply auctions. My dad was always talking about a sale barn having a sale, and it depended on what day of the week it was as to where the sale was. Now you are lucky not to have to drive 100-plus miles to find a sale barn.
If you are a hobby farmer, or just a parent wanting to teach his son or daughter the responsibility that raising an animal can bring, finding a sale barn is a chore - not to mention one that has a creditable reputation. I recently visited a livestock sale barn south of Indianapolis, and what I saw was appalling, to say the least.
This was one of many trips to this sale, and I had been very leery of the practices I had witnessed. More surprising was the way the bidders there accepted the actions as satisfactory.
The sale of goats seems to be what the sale barn owner wants to pay with the auctioneer paying little attention to anyone else there. While this upset me as just bad business, what I saw a couple of weeks ago infuriated me as very poor ethics. A couple of gentlemen who were of Asian descent were there. It was evident they spoke little English. They were attempting to bid on chickens that were being sold. Mind you these were everyday chickens as opposed to the ones that lay golden eggs.
I watched as the auctioneer started the bidding, the Asian bidder raised his hand to bid and just kind of left it resting in an upward direction on the back of his seat. The auctioneer continued to raise the bid from where they started at $5 each. At $9, the auctioneer asked the bidder “you understand that is each?” The trigger that gave it all away was the two men looked puzzled at each other, smiled and nodded and the bidder raised his hand as if he was bidding again.
From there the bids went all the way up to $27 - each time the head count was nine. We both know that this was wrong in every sense of the word. I tried to file a report with the I.A.C., but received no response from them.
My point to all of this is that it is a shame sale barns still in business are so hard to find.
I also wish those in business would respect the fact they are afloat and not jeopardize being shut down by practicing poor ethics in business. I would like to see Farm World maybe post a list of still functioning livestock sale venues with sale times and dates, Like that of your equipment sales.
Thank you for your time,
Dan Reed
Mooresville, Ind. |
| 8/11/2010 |
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