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Auction at Kentucky Horse Park benefits a scholarship

By TIM THORNBERRY
Kentucky Correspondent

LEXINGTON, Ky. — A sure sign of spring is seeing huge crowds at the Kentucky Horse Park. But last weekend, the crowd was more into farm implements than champion Thoroughbreds as the 26th annual Fayette County Farm Bureau (FCFB) Farm Equipment Consignment Auction took place.

As well as being a place to find a bargain, money from the yearly event has financed the FCFB’s Education Foundation scholarship program for approximately 20 years.

Todd Clark, vice president of FCFB has worked with the auction for 18 years and said the original purpose of the auction was to help area farmers. The idea of scholarships came later.

“It is still our mission to give area farmers a means to buy and sell new or used equipment but it has evolved into a fundraiser for a scholarship that is given away annually. To date 24 students have been given $20,000 scholarships that were funded exclusively from net proceeds from the auction,” he said.

Clark added that the past and present FCFB board members volunteer their time to help with the auction and that is no small task considering the amount of items brought to the sale and the amount of people looking to buy. There were approximately 1,300 bidder numbers given out during the event with 450 consignors and over 1,100 items to sell. Those bringing items to sell are allowed to do so the Thursday before the sale.

“In two days time roughly, 1,100 items came in then sold on Saturday, then by Monday all is loaded up and hauled away by a group of volunteers. It’s a lot of work in a short period of time,” said Clark. “There is a lot to remember and many details. At this point all of our members are familiar with this and so it is about half entertainment and half work for us and the Horse Park is the ultimate place to have it.”

The event does take on a festival atmosphere complete with concessions. Pete Peeff from Nicholas County was one of those attending and has been to three previous auctions.
“Every year I buy something. It’s always a good sale,” he said. Peeff added that he was looking to buy metal this year to use on his beef cattle operation.

Even in a tough economy, the sale seemed to thrive, something that has been repeated in other auctions across the country.
“If I would have had to predict one way or the other prior to the sale, I would have said I was cautious or concerned but I think it (the economy) helped us actually,” said Clark.

He also said that this year saw one of the lowest amounts of unsold equipment ever left after the auction. “People brought items with the intent to sell and they did.”

At the end of the day, the auction brought in roughly $1 million with the help of three auctioneers from Swinebroad-Denton working at the same time. The sale included everything from tractors and boats to, hay balers and trailers, as well as a wide array of farm, lawn and garden equipment.

Clark said that the event has been a win-win situation for all concerned.

“We need as many friends as we can to help sustain agriculture in Fayette County so we look at the sale and the scholarship program as a way to not only help fund an education but as a way to make a friend for agriculture and the community,” said Clark. “We hope that at some point down the road the recipients of the scholarships will think back and remember that we helped them out at a crucial point in their life and maybe they’ll stand up for us someday.”

3/25/2009