EASTERN ONTARIO: Top item sells for $127,000 at Stittsville farm auction

By Connor Lynch

STITTSVILLE — There were clouds in the sky, and mud on the ground, but anticipation in the air, as Stewart James Jr. rattled off the bidding prices.
John Dawson, a former hog, dairy and cash crop farmer, was feeling good, he said, as he watched the James family auctioneers last month sell the last of his farm equipment — the tractors, combines and implements — from his cash crop operation. The auctioneers had sold the dairy and hog equipment about 10 years earlier. Dawson had farmed with his two sons but they both found careers off the farm.

The sale drew around 250 people, lining up pickup trucks all along Shea Road between Stittsville and Richmond.

Interest was broad, auctioneer Stewart James said, with buyers coming from areas as disparate as Mt. Forest and London in Western Ontario, to Shawville and St. Hyacinthe in Quebec.

The top-seller at the sale was a Case IH Puma 185, which came with a L775 loader and a full set of tires, which went for $127,000.

All in all, Dawson was happy with how the sale turned out, James said. “It was a golden opportunity for farmers to buy up-to-date equipment in Canadian dollars at very fair prices.”