Expectation of prices at the farm colt sale hosted by Abner & Barbie Stoltzfus were high prior to sale .... upon completion of the sale, many regular participants in mule colt trade left shaking their heads. Of course those who were sellors were more than happy; buyers were in shock, in debt, or in the poor house. As one trader stated 'you had to decide whether to get in or out and stick to it'. The two founders of the sale, Abner Stoltzfus and Ben Smucker, were extremely pleased and a little overwhelmed at the prices the colts brought.
A complete story will be in the next issue of DIXIE but for now here are a few stats:
There was a total of 82 head consigned. One colt was deemed un-salable due to bow-legged front legs and one colt is not counted in the stats, as he was a buggy horse / standard bred. That leaves 80 draft colts. The highest selling colt stopped at $11,300 followed by prices like $9500, $9000, $8900. The overall average for the sale was a touch over $5550 per head. Whether leaving with emplty pockets or an empty trailer, this was a sale for the history books.