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Friday, May 3, 2019 • Edition 6
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Focusing on Today’s Rural Environment
An exotic kind of sale
PHOTOS BY DIANE DIA ANE LEUKAM
Longhorn cattle once owned by Jared Allen, a former Minnesota Viking, were some of the units sold April 277 at an exotic animal and bird auction at Web Livestock in Benson.
Variety of animals, people make for active day at Web By DIANE LEUKAM Staff Writer BENSON – What is an exotic animal and bird auction? That depends on where the sale is. Here in Central Minnesota, an exotic sale is basically an event where animals other than the “normal” cattle are auctioned off. There might be unusual rabbits, geese, ducks, chickens and parrots, or hooved animals of all sorts – maybe even a zebu. It just depends on the day. April 27 was just such a day at Web Livestock on the south side of Benson. Ron Paskewitz has been in the auction business long enough to know that when it comes to exotic sales, you just never know what you’re going to get.
That rang true with some of the specialty cattle being sold that day. A seller brought in a herd of longhorn cattle that once belonged to a former Minnesota Vikings players. “It didn’t mean a whole lot to me,” Paskewitz said. “He told me Jared Allen and I never even thought of the Vikings player. He said they’re coming out of the good Jared Allen stock. And when he said he’s from the Minnesota Vikings, well then, of course, I remembered he’s a good player. It’s just something different.” Paskewitz went on to explain that even though the cattle are longhorns many of them are, ironically, missing their horns. These particular cattle were not bred for their horns, but for how they would buck when being ridden. Many of them were dehorned as babies to prevent
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Ron Paskewitz is owner of Web Livestock in Benson, where a variety of auction types are held throughout the year.
fighting h i and d iinjuries. j i He estimated Allen paid a lot of money for the cattle originally, but now, the market for them is not nearly as good. Eventually, too many people do the same thing and the market is flooded. “Years ago, these would have been a few thousand dollars apiece,” he said. Walking through the cattle yard, Kevin Hamborg of Sunburg showed more pens of longhorns. One of them, a new mom, was clearly not happy to have visitors. At the sight of people, she ran toward them, though she was safely inside
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hher pen. “Watch it, she will try to attack, do you see what I mean?” he said. “This one has a calf at side so she is a little touchy.” Still walking, potential buyers approached Hamborg with questions, for which he was more than willing to supply answers. One person was wondering about a little red calf, and if someone could bid on an animal for him if he
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