More Real Reasons for The Fair: Junior Livestock Auction

Posted on 4 August 2007 under Fairs, Special Events

From today’s Monroe News, “Meijer pays $11 a pound for grand champion hog“:

The 270-pound grand champion 4-H hog raised by Jacob Beck of Ottawa Lake was snatched up by Meijer Inc. for $11 a pound during the Junior Livestock Auction Friday night … The sale earned Jacob, 15, a profit of $2,970. He already is thinking about getting his first car, but will have to save some of the money for college, said his mom.

The grand champion lamb actually went for, oh, just a bit more … from “Bank, grocer join forces to buy grand champion lamb for $35 a pound“:

… (T)wo perennial buyers joined together to buy the grand champion lamb raised by Lauren Wells of Monroe for a whopping $35 a pound … Karen Bellino bid for (Danny’s Fine Foods) and Tom Assenmacher did the same for (Monroe Bank & Trust) … Lauren …  held her prized 140-pound lamb during the bidding. She went home with $4,900. The sale topped the sale of the 2006 champion lamb raised by Hannah Biniecki of Maybee that went for $30 a pound to Kroger Co.

But unfortunately, in a related article today, the kind of apathy I wrote about in a post on August 2nd reared its ugly head. From “Champion steer nets $5 a pound“:

Chuck Smith was as stunned as almost everyone else at the Monroe County Fair livestock auction Friday night … Mr. Smith had just bought the 4-H grand champion steer for $5 a pound. But he was the only bidder on the 1,275-pound dark steer in the first sale of the long night … “I figured I’d get it started and it would go higher,” the owner of C.M. Smith Sand & Stone explained afterward. “But it didn’t move.” … Usually for a grand champion, auctioneer Chuck Chestnut has to wave his hands several times and work his way through several bidders before announcing the final sale. But not this time … “You got me speechless,” Mr. Chestnut said afterward.

A 1,275-pound grand champion steer? That’s a whole lot of work and feed for only $5 a pound …

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