WELLINGTON, Ohio — Cheers erupt at the Lorain County Fairgrounds in Barn #4 as employees from Ross Environmental Services chug a quart of milk.
Every year at the Lorain County Fair Dairy Youth Auction, the prize for the highest bidder is milk down the gullet.
“But it’s the kids that win,” said Jim McConnell, a former dairy farmer who helped start the dairy youth auction 26 years ago.
Unlike 4-H’ers who show market animals, the children who show dairy cows don’t sell off their animals and only get a few bucks for their hard work. This all changed with the dairy auction.
What started as a small way to support the youth has grown to fundraise a record amount. Last year, the auction made $87,000. At the auction on Aug. 28, the total amount raised would tally to $102,125.
Josie Leiby, a 14-year-old from Wellington, has participated in the dairy show for five years now. The money she gets from the auction is “helpful,” as it pays for hoof trimming for all the show animals. Students also get to keep some of the money for themselves.
“We get so much money from like all these awesome buyers that support us all; it’s rewarding because we work with our animals all year,” Leiby said, whose great-grandparents first bought her family’s farm over 116 years ago.
Leiby, who showed her cattle after the auction, sees dairy as part of her family legacy: “It’s just in our family; it’s what we do,” she said.
How it started
In the early 2000s, 4-H’ers showing dairy cattle only got $4 to $8 per animal, paid by Ohio State University Extension, said Patrick Twining, chair of the dairy department for the Lorain County Fair.
“Meanwhile, the kids that are showing steers, lambs, the market animals, they’re raking in a couple $100 to a $1,000 check at the end of the week from selling,” Twining said.
This led to a decrease in dairy show participation: McConnell and others on the Lorain County Dairy Committee took notice. Dairy farms also continue to decline in the county.
McConnell grew up on a dairy farm and milked for several decades before selling off his herd: ‘It was a hard decision to make, but my brothers and I decided that we had an opportunity to use some of our equipment to raise somebody else’s heifers, he said.
Jim Sheffield, a former dairy farmer and Lorain County Dairy Youth Auction Committee member in Wellington, Ohio, sold his dairy farm a year and a half ago.
He took over his family’s farm from his dad in 1956. His son had been milking for 46 years, but the equipment was getting old and cattle prices are high. Sheffield kept 10 cows for his great-grandkids to show at the dairy show.
While the committee members couldn’t stop the decline of the dairy industry, they had to come up with a way to encourage the youth. The Lorain County Dairy Auction Committee launched the first auction in 2001, auctioning off handmade items like pies.
Twining showed dairy cattle that first year and was “over-the-moon” when he got his paycheck.
“That first year of the auction, (I got) a $250 check. Being a young kid, you are a millionaire; that’s a lot of money,” he said.
The total amount raised that year was $13,000. As the years went on, this number would only continue to grow — and so did the support.
And it grows
Andy Suvar started working as the auctioneer at the dairy show 12 years ago, bringing volunteers to help keep track of bids. His first year went so well that he comes back every year.
“My 4-H days were here; this is my gift to (the kids),” Suvar said. Local businesses would also start to pitch in, donating items to the sale and bidding.
Amber Mohrman, of Mohr Stamping, first started attending the dairy show auction in 2016 and has bid on items every year since then. This year, she won a homemade peach pie — the two pies sold for $5,000 each.
A staple of the auction, the pies were made by McConnell’s mother before his niece took over after her death. They are still one of the most popular items sold at the auction.
“They’ve been a part of this auction for generations; it’s a tradition of pies, and they’re fantastic,” Mohrman said.
The highest bid this year, though, would be handmade wooden-carved toy tractors, selling for $17,000 a piece — a new record for the sale of individual items.
During the auction, Farkas Farms and Ross Environmental Services went back and forth for 10 minutes before agreeing to each take a tractor.
“We didn’t know at first that we were bidding against each other, but we have a very friendly competition at many of these different auctions, and so it was fun,” said Pat Lawson, senior vice president at Ross Environmental Services.
“Then, when we figured out it was (Farkas Farms), we knew we were in for a long haul,” she said, followed by a laugh. Ross Environmental first attended the dairy auction three years ago and has won highest bidder ever since.
Each year, Lawson’s daughter volunteers to chug the milk; it’s her favorite part of the auction.
“We really enjoy doing (this), seeing how well the kids do, and (the milk chugging) is a fun part for them. (The kids) like watching it, so that it makes it even more fun for us,” Lawson said.
(Liz Partsch can be reached at epartsch@farmanddairy.com or 330-337-3419.)
