[ToC] [Prev] [Next] The 1995 Owenlea Labor Day Sale

These photos have been placed on the WWW so that folks who know me from reading Graze-L can see a few pictures of Owenlea Farm. I reduced the photos to the minimum resolution (and to grayscale) so they would load more quickly on your web browser.

I don't have any pictures of grazing at Owenlea but I promise to correct that when the snow melts. These will give you a bit of an idea of our farm.

The pictures were taken by my wife Jackie, during the 1995 renewal of our annual Owenlea Labor Day Sale series. We sold about 100 head that averaged around $2000 with a top price of $5100 for a nice young cow due with the second calf.

We occasionally have sales here at Owenlea Farm, but the principal use of the facilities is to care for our own herd.



View of the barns at Owenlea. These buildings face south. From left: sale tent, heifer barn, main cow barn, milking parlor, ground level grain storage(big door) and calf barn on the right.



Looking west from my office door. The walk is lined for 150 feet with flower beds. The sale tent is straight ahead. Barns are to the right. Sale parking and pastures are to the left.


The sale ring several hours prior to sale time. A local greenhouse/garden center, coerced by my daughter, decorated the ring and areas around the barns.


The sale ring toward the end of the sale. It's impossible to see from this view but the auctioneer is my daughter Andrea (only 18 years old, but a iron willed veteran at this game!). Also in the box is another valued friend, Mike Weimer of Solid-Gold Holsteins from Pennsylvania who was reading pedigrees. Notice the Amish hats on the left. The Amish stayed to the very end of the sale hoping to snap up bargains if everyone else went home early.



The milking parlor at Owenlea Farm during the sale. These cattle had already been sold. The cattle were milked immediately after selling by my son, Blake. We didn't sell the screw on the left. She arrived at the sale displaced. We sent her home to the consignor.



The scene behind the auction box during the sale.



The was an hour before the sale began. On the right is one of my oldest and most valued friends, Raymond E. Anthony of Pennsylvania whose accomplishments in the registered business have made him a legendary character. Second from the right is my 18 year old daughter Andrea who is the auctioneer.



A calf was born during the sale from one of the consignments. Administering colostrum is Larry Gortner, one of my oldest and closest friends. Larry and I were teammates many years ago on Ohio State University's dairy cattle judging team. Larry is owner of Rus-La-Mar Farm of Ohio.



This is my son, Blake(left) and one of the Dickerhoof boys in the entrance to the Owenlea milking parlor. These guys were responsible for milking the sale cattle immediately after they exited the sale ring. The smaller boy was actually a consignor. He sold a fabulous Blackstar bred heifer, that I thought was one of the best unfreshened females in Ohio.



Several hundred cars and trucks in our pasture. Actually, Jackie was taking a picture of the cow statue in the flower bed. My office, attached to the house is to the left.



Interior of a barn about midway through the sale. One of the Shiloh Mennonite graziers is on the right consulting his sale catalog. All our barns at Owenlea are set up like this one: a raised area (where the cows are normally loose), a paved area where the cows stand to eat (where the two men are standing), and a fenceline feeding panel of slant bars.



The sale tent at about the midpoint of the sale. As the sale began, there were people standing about 10 deep completely around the tent. We normally expect 300 to 500 people for one of our sales.
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