Local businesses show their support in the Junior Fair livestock sale

  • By Tricia Flickinger
  • August 23, 2010
  • 280
                        
The time has come that the Holmes County Fair is over and that means that the Junior Fair livestock sale has passed. This year was a very successful year at the livestock sale held Aug. 19-20. Even though there were less animals sold at the sale this year compared to last year, that doesn’t mean that the funding was down. There were 409 animals sold at the livestock sale compared to the 425 from last year. About $322,000 was raised this year during the two-day livestock sale, which is about $30,000 more than in 2009. On Thursday night, market goats, market sheep and market swine were sold and on Friday evening, Pen of Three Broilers, Pen of Three Fryers, Market Dairy Feeders, Market Turkeys, Dairy Baskets, Market Steers and Market Dairy Steers were sold. Even though sometimes it’s hard for the kids to let go of their animals that they’ve grown to love, Holmes County Fair board member Tim Hershberger said the livestock sale is very important for those kids. “ The livestock sale is so important because it actually finishes the project off,” he said. “They’ve raised it from either a feeder pig, a lamb, or whatever and they’re raising a market animal and so it has one destiny and that is to go into the food chain. This is where we end that.” Luckily for the kids with animals, businesses and locals in Holmes County are very generous when it comes to buying livestock during the sale. “We’ve had sales that have topped over $300,000 and last year it was roughly in the $292,000 range,” Hershberger said. That is a lot of money being generated in a two-night sale. So I would say, you can call it what you want to, but this is support.” After the amount of animals that had to be sold last year, fair board members were worried they might have to change something this year with the process of the sale, but they ended up not having to change anything. They are waiting to see what they can do differently in the event the fairgrounds is at a new location next year. “We didn’t have to change anything this year. Whenever we get to our new fairgrounds, then we may want to put a new format in,” Hershberger said. “Selling at one location with as much livestock as we have, buyers are very patient and we have a couple long evenings here, but it’s just like a football game; you stay to the end.” These animals are raised by the kids in 4-H, but that doesn’t mean that the buyers are getting a different product than they would elsewhere. Hershberger said that these kids have guidance and receive lots of advice from their 4-H club advisors or parents. “Part of it is a learning process and for the kids in our club, we try to guide them so that they are producing a good quality meat product,” Hershberger said. “Outside judges tell us that we have some of the best products in the state for a small fair, and that’s great. That’s coming from an outside source, that’s not me talking. Anybody that is willing to come down and support the kids, that’s just the sense that we have a good product.”


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