WIMMERA Poultry Club has hailed its first Helmsman-style auction a success.
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More than 400 pens of birds were sold at Horsham Showground on Sunday in under four hours.
Birds were penned by 10am, and people were heading home by about 2pm.
Event organiser Brendan Lloyd said it was a marked improvement on last year.
“We had about the same number of pens as we did last year,” he said.
But the traditional auction style had meant people at last year’s event did not leave Horsham Showground until about 7pm.
“This year, the auction was finished by 12.30pm, then people just had to pick up their birds up and go home,” Mr Lloyd said.
The highest priced birds sold on the day was a pair of mandarin ducks, which went for $400.
The birds had a reserve price of $280.
Mr Lloyd said $400 for a pair of mandarin ducks was still a bargain.
“They can sell for that amount each,” he said.
Also among the pricier auction items was a $100 pair of yokohama birds.
More than 100 buyers attended the event.
“It will be interesting to see what we get with the feedback,” Mr Lloyd said.
The new auctioning style presented some teething problems.
“People didn’t know how to do their bidding on the cards, but we had people going around and showing them that,” he said.
“We also had a lot of first-time sellers, and of course some of them didn’t know as much about their birds and found out a lot about them at the sale.
“But a lot of sellers were happy because they had their birds sold well and were home earlier than last year.
“Anyone who had the time to communicate with their potential buyers got good returns.”
The club will continue with the Helmsman-style of auction.
“We got six new members on the day and there have already been inquiries about our next show in June,” Mr Lloyd said.