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Bender Family Closes Operations
Bender Family Closes OperationsBy Bill Walsh
Times-Democrat Staff Writer
Last Saturday's massive auction of farm equipment at the Albert Bender family farm near Calverton marks a new beginning, son Joe Bender said early this week, not an ending.
"We were able to get rid of a lot of stuff," the younger Bender said.
Indeed. The auction catalog listed more than 50 tractors, including a complete collection of 20 series John Deere tractors ; about a dozen combines; about an equal number of trucks and automobiles; and too many tractor attachments, haying and feeding equipment, mowers, tedders, balers and the like to count.
"I can't say that this is the largest auction of farm equipment we've seen in the last few years," auctioneer E. B. Harris said, "but I can tell you that this is the largest auction of one person's equipment in Virginia and the Carolinas in many, many years," he added.
The North Carolina firm sold a total of 832 lots, Harris said, and the auction "went very well," with the equipment heading to "states all across the nation," he said.
Seemingly putting an end to their farming altogether, the Bender family has also sold their 400 dairy cows.
Looks are deceiving, Joe Bender said Monday. Dairy prices are miserable right now, most of the equipment was old, and it is simply time to retrench.
"We'll be back in a few years," he suggested, perhaps on a bit less expansive scale.
The Bender family owns 180 acres, he said, but had farmed about 3,000 leased acres across Fauquier County.
"The auction was good," Bender said, "and we sold about everything.
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