Election where winners cry fowl

An annual Yuletide auction held at York Auction Mart yesterday saw more than 800 turkeys, ducks, and geese sold to farmers, butchers, and families.

Mart officials said the sale included 830 birds. The top price for geese was 58, for a 7.2 kilo bird. The top price for turkeys was a 12.2 kilo bird which went for 49. There were also some ducks including a 3.5 kilo specimen that fetched 15.

The sale is an old Yorkshire tradition where farmers produce the birds for other farmers, butchers and the general public to come and buy. About 130 buyers turned up yesterday, hunting a better quality bird.