BRIERCREST — Live farm auction sales were replaced by online auctions during the COVID-19 lockdown and haven’t returned.
Seeing an ad in Moose Jaw Express for a live auction where the buyers and tire kickers can mingle, visit, compete with bids and eat good food is all but gone.
The occasional live farm auction is still held in the north country.
When a friend and I heard about a real live farm auction near Briercrest we had to go.
Arriving early, we saw the auctioneer Scott Johnstone of Moose Jaw.
“This is a rare occurrence,” he described the live auction. We agreed.
The auction was for Paul and Virginia Tysdal — long time Briercrest farmers who are moving.
Farmers trickled in and inspected items on the block and gossiped.
Small stuff on a trailer sold first. Three large pails of parts including air seeder pieces sold for $75 followed by $150 for a post hole auger with skid steer attachment.
A Versatile 959 tractor sold for $12,000 while a Gophinator sold for $7,000 and a 55-ton fertilizer bin sold for $2,750.
Trimble GPS sets sold for $1,250 to $2,500.
Before we left, we met two farmers from Cupar, northeast of Regina.
The younger one was happy to see a live farm auction.
“The online auctions ruined auctions,’’ he said, remarking he didn’t like having to make pre-auction appointments to view online auction items.
We left the auction and headed to Rockin Robyn’s in Avonlea for lunch and then south to Ogema, Bengough and such.
In Bengough we stopped for ice cream at the OMG Coffee and Creamery. While enjoying our treat we overheard a group of oldtimers one upping each other about their younger days on motorcycles.
Off to the tiny hamlet of Big Beaver where seven lovely horses — two palominos, two paints, two roans and a bay — grazed peacefully as we turned into town.
Crops along the way were awesome, perhaps soon needing rain to fill out to their potential.
Crops further south seemed less advanced than in the northern districts.
One thing that struck us was the absence of waterfowl and songbirds.
On past trips through this country we were used to seeing lots of ducks and some geese.
We saw maybe 10 ducks in all of the sloughs we passed. No geese.
Songbirds, even yellow-headed blackbirds, used to hang and sing on this route. We saw none and only heard one meadow lark.
We stopped in Willow Bunch to drop off a threshing bee poster and headed home via Crane Valley.
Ron Walter can be reached at ronjoy@sasktel.net
