Chocolate
Shortly after Laurie and I got married, I considered it quality time with my new bride to take her along with me up to the livestock Auction in Thetford Vermont. The Gray's Auction house had a weekly livestock auction. At that auction they sold all types of livestock. The farmer and/or anyone could bring their animals up to the auction house on a Monday, and starting at two in the afternoon, the animals would be auctioned off to the highest bidder. They sold almost everything by the peace, so that everyone knew just how much they were bidding. It was a very friendly atmosphere of farmers coming together to sell what they would rather have money for and buy what was being sold at a good price. The auction would go on until everything in the auction hall had been auctioned off. It always went till at least ten in the evening, and if there were a large number of animals that week, the auction could go until two or three in the morning. Herb Gray would make an announcement at the start of each auction, I don't remember the whole of it, but the gist was that they would sell most any and all animals with the exception of reptiles, cats dogs and small children.
There was also a selection of .... stuff. (Junk I would call it) They would sell anything that had to do with life on the farm. This might include fence posts, saddles, cream separators, horse blankets, tools, I even saw shaving cream sold up there on Monday afternoon. It all has something to do with life on the farm.
I had been making it a part of my week to go up there and spend my Mondays at the auction house. When I got married, my auction going days diminished. But if I didn't have other work to do, Laurie and I would get into whatever vehicle she had running that week, and we would make the minimum of a two hour drive up to the auction house.
It was on one such trip to the Thetford auction that Chocolate came into my life. Chocolate was a dark Brown Swiss cow.
As a customer, buyer, seller, spectator, at the auction, there are bleachers to sit on. The animals come through the sales ring and are auctioned off in front of you. Some animals come though in lots. The auctioneer, Herb Gray will announce in his loud voice what the deal is as each lot is sold. A common way they did it was to bring in four to a lot. The first time he would say "Choice.” This meant you could choose witch animal you wanted out of the four animals being sold. You would pay the going price for the one/ones you selected. Then he would say "Buy the peace and take two" In which case the bid winner would pick two from the group and he would own them for the price he won the bidding at. Most lots finished with "buy the peace and take the lot" This would usually bring a lower bid and the winner would have to take all the remaining critters from the lot, each costing whatever they had bid.
Al would do the calling. He had a song or chant he would call out in a melodious voice, always seeking the best price for each animal. Once you got used to Al’s chant, you would always know just where he was in the bidding. It was a joy to sit and listen as Al sang to you for the afternoon, always enticing the audience to contribute to his song. Herb was the ringmaster, calling the shots. He owned the business and directed every move of the auction hall. Becky, Herbs wife with bright red hair and a bright smile would document each sale. Herb's three Kids would shuffle the animals around, bringing the lots though the ring, and putting them in pens where they could be found by their new owners after they were sold.
I had found out a long time ago, that I liked to do more then just sit in the stands and watch the animals go by. When they were selling something I had no interest in I would stand out where the animals arrived. There was a paid auction worker who would tag each animal as it came in. He would then tell the seller where the animal had to be penned. There were usually two pens for pigs, a sheep and goat pen, Heifer calf pen, bob calf pen, the old milking parlor in the auction barn was used to keep the dairy cows ready to be sold. This collection of pens was very fluid and dynamic, it would change not only from week-to-week as different animals came into season, But as the sale went on, the pens would change from animals for sale, to sold animals waiting to be picked up.
If there was something being sold in the sale ring that I was not interested in, I could be found out where the small animals came in. After they were tagged, they needed to go in the correct pen. There were gates to be opened and piglets to be carried. Gates to be closed and bystanders to be separated so the animal could get through. Sheep could be a challenge to get into the pen where you wanted them. I had some experience with getting sheep to do as I wanted. Goats could be fun as well. It sometimes came down to a bit of a competition to see who was better at getting the animals to go where they needed to be.
I enjoyed the work, and Laurie always had a good time when she would come along as well. It gives you a good chance to get a close up look at the animals, you see who brought them in, what they looked like coming off the truck (or out of the back seat of a car).
Most weeks I would bring something up, to pay for the day. However, I would also usually end up as the highest bidder for something, and I would have something to take back home. Rusty was Herb's youngest boy. He was sort of in charge of what came into the ring next. If he wanted five sheep, he would get in the pen and shoo the five he wanted as a lot out into the corridor, then I would help get them through the gates needed to get them to the auction ring. He liked to keep the pace up, always have something in the ring to be sold off. After they were sold they would come back, we tried to keep from having two-way traffic in a corridor, they would go out one way and come in another. There were many gates to be manned and an occasional slow critter to be helped along. This was all strictly voluntary, but it often had its benefits. Sometimes the caller would sell a critter for a low price, by just taking the bid of the person who opened the bidding, this would get people to bid better.
Laurie and I unloaded Chocolate out of the little pick-up she had come up in. Chocolate was a week-old calf. She was the color of Milk chocolate, she had some Brown Swiss in her and she was as cute as a button. Laurie found out she was over ten days old and she had been on her Mom for all that time. This meant she had had her Mom's Colostrum and would be well started and ready to be bottle fed. Rusty was right there and Laurie expressed to him that we would like this Calf. We penned her with the other heifer calves waiting to be sold.
After the dinner break is when the heifer calves are sold. Laurie and I were in the stands waiting for this cute little calf to come through. We waited and waited, and they kept selling lot after lot, but the one we were waiting for didn't seem to come. I would sometimes start the bidding. This would start the bidding going and I seldom ended up with the winning Bid. If I did get it, it was for far less then I felt it should have sold for. We watched and waited for the tag number 23 we knew had been put on the calf we wanted, but she didn't show. I began to think that maybe I had missed her somehow. When all the heifer calves had sold I went back to the calf pens and looked, there she was, lying down in the corner. Rusty was just passing the pen, I hailed him and said we have one more heifer calf here, he isn't marked as sold. He muttered that she had been sold.
The cows all go in the early evening, I am not going to buy a cow, so I help move them from pen to pen as that part of the sale is going on, opening and closing gates and getting them to move along.
Late in the night it got so the only thing left to be sold were the bob calves. I didn't want a steer or a beef animal, I certainly didn't ever want to raise a bull, so I was behind the scenes moving the calves about. I checked over in what had been the heifer pen earlier in the day, there was the milk chocolate colored heifer calf. They needed to use that pen for the sold bob calves, one of the workers went out and checked with Becky to see who had bought the heifer, to see if they could get her out. Becky said "No, That number has not come through."
I was aware of all of this, and I went out to see when the calf went. I figured they would announce that it was a heifer calf, and auction it off. Rusty was up on the lectern, and he wanted to get the sale going. Chocolate was in the first lot of six bob calves to come out.
"Ok, we'll do choice one time and who will get us started at fifty dollars, fifty, fifty do I have fifty, fifty, fifty, fifty, Twenty-five anywhere? Do I see twenty? Fifteen ten anywhere can I have five dollars for choice? ” I signaled.
"Sold! To JB Brown down in the front row, You want them all JB?"
"No, I want the Swiss one, number 23, the brown one right there."
The next time Rusty sang his song the price was up around $50 where it should have been.
Well, you can bet that next time the people in the stands were a bit closer to the edge of their seats and ready to signal, hoping that Rusty would slide them a quick one. I had bought a heifer calve for the price of a sick bob calf. For just $5 I had a female cow who would live to have seven calves of her own.
To be continued....

JB Brown

Awwww what a story loved it been to the auctions myself but were horse auctions instead it is a differnt life for sure
good write.

Auctions are great fun...although I normally by antiques and not animals. It's always great to get a good deal.

I use to go the Auctions with my Grandfather,, Loved the story