The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1920-11-10
SETTING THE STAGE FOR A
s8t5 RIG SALE

one of many sales. not only farm sales
4 but livestock sales as well. Those Q
our breeders who have held public sale
heretofore know that 1t means muc
work and attention in order that a sue
cessful sale be held. We believe ther
are many breeders in the county VIII
can profit by reading the following al
tile, written by Grin Croker in Hoard
Dairyman for November 5. Mr.. Crook
err tells of a Guernsey sale held at III
den farms near Delavan, WIS, recent
ly, 1t will be noticed the T1lden Farm
started to make preparations for .tl
sale months in advance, and had every
thing in perfect working order by san
day. sixty head of cattle We're in tn
Offering and fifty-1iine head We're solt
for $21 $3.50, or an average Of 1853 {
head. A thousand catalogues cost Al
cents apiece, and the local papers, J, q 2
the county in which the sale was hell
were literally patronized. The article
follows:
Few people who attend big sale O
livestock or dairy animals appreciate
the large amount Of work that has been
necessary in order to put it across
without a hitch. To the spectator i
led on and off the platform-the auc
tioneers and bid getters go through
their accustomed gymnastics and voca
exereises-the crowd goes home--the
clerk totals up the days receipts nus
at least does it appear on the surface
But To- set the stage for this three OF
four hour performance requires weeks
perhaps months--of effort. The scope
4 az the sale must be worked out, suitable
publicity must be given, animals. mlisi
be brought to sale ring condition, pro
visions for the comfort of the crowd
must be made After 1T is all over
those who have engineered It are apt
to feel that with a day or two OF coach
ing they could handle "a three, ring I'm CIR
Gus.
a SO many of those who attended the
Guernsey sale at Tilden Farms, near
Delayarl Wis, recently, commended
the way in which everything was
handled that it seemed as though the
story of how this sale was worked uE
! would be of interest to the many read
ers OF this publication, who attended
g. ,r engage in similar sales. The follow
ing account, although phrased IN the
first person, is really n composite de-
scription for which the writer is IN
debted not only to James III. Murphy
the manager of the farm, but to VIM
Geist, foreman; Joseph Deneen, nerds
man, and others about the place.
.,yVe started to make our plans Ior
this sale many months ago" our IN.
forn1ant began. ..Of course, it WASH I
until about the first of April that we
actually began to put the animals IN
sale condition, but we We're busy on
the job long before this. Before we
could do anything at all--even IN tiae
way OF starting piIblicity17we nag 70 y
decide upon the animals which we
would offer for sale. In doing this we
had to choose wisely and bear IN mind
3 that BUYERS would come seeking 70
meet their own needs and not partlcli-
larry Just to bid on what we might put
UP for SALE Conseq uently IT was neces.
aary to arrange our sale llsL VIII til "
in View. we decided that 60 animals
would be all that could he. disposed OF
without wearying those in atte ntlance.
OF this number, we determined first OF
all that only five should be males, az
this was about the proportion we lelt
would be in demand. The remaining
number we grouped in three classes IN
order to meet all sorts Of buyers needs.
One.third Of these animals were to be
Young cows and mixers; another third
were to be. cows bred to freshen. around
snle time; the balance We're to be open
stock, ranging from six to sixteen
months On this basis, then, we Went
through the herd and picked the am
mails to be included in the sale. Ihs
done, we were ready to prepare our ad-
yertising copy and start work on out
sale catalogue.
& aPublicity for a sale of this kind en-,
tails a lot Of work. In our case we had
n to make special bid for attention
since it was to be our initial appear
arlce in the way of am annual SAFE.
Guernsey men had to be informed OF
the fact that we were going to nod q
sale. Another year, perhaps many OF
them will be on the watch for II. VIC
think we did a thorough job in the way
Of publicity. Some folks might think
we overdid it. But we have no regrets,
Every animal listed in the catalogue
was sold. Our advertising was planned
with a view Of covering the fela /, az as
thoroughly as possible. For instance
!. II appeared in q national publication
{ going entirely to Guernsey people. II
appeared in a national dairy paper 60
ing to dairymen who handled all sorts
Of cows 1t appeared in a state farm
paper going to Wisconsin farmers, al
Of whom, no doubt, keep cows even
though they may not be ENGAGED large
~ in dairying. In addition TO these
publications of wide circulation we ran
display ads in all the local papers N
Walworth county by means of WHICH
we made sure Of drawing q crowd--lne
a crowd is essential to good, brisk
sale. 1t may interest you to know that
our advertising outside OF the county
brought us 200 special requests for sale
catalogues--mOst of them from distant
points. s
''This, however. did not complete the
work of publicity. We took the mem
bership list OF the American Guernsey
Cattle Club and mailed our sale cata-
ligue to five hundred selected address,
es. Each catalogue was accompanied
by personal letter sent under separ-
ate cover. These letters were all alike,
of course but they We're not mimeo-
graphed. Each. was separately typed
by our office man. and personally sign!
ed by Mr.. Murphy, the manager. There
was personal touch to these letters
which we believe helped very much to
focus attention on our sale.
Publicity, too, is an expensive pas
time, even in the livestock sale bust
ness. Our advertising cost between
500 and $500. Our sale catalogues,
which were printed on good grade of
paper containing several photographs
taken especially for it, cost us 40 cents
eacl--and I'VE used an even thousand
of them. But TO make money one has
to spend money, and our sale expense.
as you will see shortly, did not exceed
the average which such sales entail.
THE work OF getting the sale ami
mails ready was under way fully two
months before they went onto the plat
form. Our first move was to sepa rate
these sixty animals from the rest of
the herd and put them in barn by
themselves. Then we started a feeding
Ia.