Page 51 - Koi Net - On-Line Koi Magazine - Issue 19

HEY PRESTO, SHOWA! KOI DEALERS’ NEWS

ADAM BYER Byer Koi Farm
KOI We held our Autumn Grow and Show Event, ‘Hey Presto,

Showa!’ on Sunday 17th November. This is our second
autumn event, and it feels like we have started an
annual cycle.
The general principle for our Autumn Event is to offer Koi
from one of our non-Kohaku spawnings of a level that
we would otherwise be growing on and selling in the
Spring; and to do that in the format of a Grow and Show
Competition. It gives hobbyists a chance to pick up
something of higher quality a bit earlier in the Koi’s life
than they would typically have access to. We also aim to
make the Event cheap to enter and fun.
Applying that principle to the Autumn Event last year
with our Ogon spawning, we made the best growers
from the spawning available and called the event
‘Shooting Stars’; the winner took full advantage and
grew 4 ‘Shooting Stars’ Koi to 45cm+ at just 10 months
old! And there were 3 separate entrants who achieved
40cm+ with their ‘Shooting Stars’ Ogons at the same
age. Fantastic achievements all round.
This year we’ve chosen to use Showa’s – and making the
event about development in contrast to last year’s
growth focus.
With the magic of transformation the key aspect with
Showa’s, we called the event ‘Hey Presto, Showa!’

Take up was high, and thankfully our July 2019 LMC
Showa spawning delivered enough Koi for us to be able
to support 50 entrants and over 120 entries.
Now, it’s over to the entrants – to grow these Showa’s on
and watch them develop. And we’ll be checking back
with them in October 2020 to see the transformations
and to award prizes to the two Koi that have developed
the best.

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