Birds under the hammer at York's festive sale

Around 450 turkeys and 220 geese were among the 800 or so locally produced and processed birds that were traded at York Auction Centre’s annual Christmas poultry sale.

Auctioneer Richard Tasker said: “We had around 400 people through the sale and a lot were private buyers and families who had come with their children to buy a bird which they could learn where it had come from. It was a lot nicer experience than dashing around the supermarket and all the money from sales goes back into the local economy.”

Around 30 vendors travelled from across the Vale of York and further afield, some from West Yorkshire and others from near Hartlepool, to auction birds that typically weighed in at five to seven kilograms, though some of the biggest weighed a mighty 20kg or more.

The average price for a turkey was £5.50 per kilo with the highest price achieved at £9.70 per kilo.

“It’s nice that we get producers here who run about 30 to 40 geese on their local farm and unless they have a farm shop or other retailer market, the livestock market is their natural outlet,” Mr Tasker said.