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Auction brings cash to 4-H kids

BAZETTA — Bid after bid, animal after animal, this year’s market projects came to a close this weekend with the 4-H members’ final hurdle of the Trumbull County Fair — auction.

Every 4-H member who exhibited a market or carcass animal sold his animal, and the money they earned is either put back into their farm or saved for the future.

“It’ll either go into my college fund or be used for a new addition to the farm, probably a heifer calf,” said Keith Barto, 18, of Hartford. He has been in dairy 4-H for 10 years with the Trumbull County Dairy Judging Team of Lordstown, and has been taking dairy feeder projects for four years.

With the hard work that goes into raising an animal, it is often hard for a 4-Her to say goodbye, but it gets easier with age.

“When I was little, it was definitely rough, you always have a special bond with your animal,” Barto said. “But it’s easier to remind myself now that this is their purpose.”

For exhibitors at the beginning of their 4-H career, the livestock auction is a new experience, and it takes time to get comfortable in it.

Christian Socha, 16, of Warren, a first-year exhibitor from the Trumbull County Hare Raisers, said he just got involved with poultry because of his friends. This year, success has found Socha, winning reserve grand champion with his meat chicken and earning the Trumbull Country Junior Fair King title.

“I was surprised, I’m just a first-year member,” said Socha. “At auction I aimed low, like just $5 per pound, I had no expectation of going higher.”

Socha’s reserve grand meat chicken went for $22 per pound at auction Saturday, with Defense & Energy Systems of Youngstown, as the buyer.

Socha has daily work like feeding, practicing and washing his six projects between poultry and rabbits.

At auction, it’s easy for nerves to get the best of the exhibitor, there’s a sale barn full of people with all eyes on the animal and exhibitor.

“There’s a room packed with people and everyone is staring at you,” said Barto. “They tell you to smile but mine always comes out like a nervous smile.”

Abbigail Kibler, 10, of Lordstown, sold her 7-month-old feeder, Jingles, at auction Saturday, but didn’t seem to let her nerves affect her. Kibler has been showing in the 4-H club Cows R Us out of Lordstown for two years.

“I’ve worked with Jingles, it doesn’t really bother me to be in the ring,” she said.

She has been showing dairy cows and dairy feeders for two years, and her feeder went for $1.50 per pound at auction.

When the weight of the animal is factored in, the prices can reach into hundreds and thousands of dollars. Kibler’s dairy feeder weighed 509 pounds, while Socha’s chicken weighed 23.3 pounds. The highest price tags are often on the beef cows, which can weigh over 1,200 pounds and go for $2 to $6 per pound, with the average market value at $1 per pound.

Often the prices that 4-H members’ animals are bought at are higher than market value because they work hard for weeks to find and invite generous buyers concerned about the future of agriculture.

news@tribtoday.com

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