DOVER, Ohio – At the Tuscarawas County Fair junior fair market livestock auction and dairy products sale, area buyers continued their support of the 4-H program.
Their bids earned a total of $230,783.05 for the lamb, hog and steer exhibitors, and another $45,250 for the dairy exhibitors.
“We’ve had a terrific sale,” said Bob Wise, market livestock committee treasurer, adding that all the animals averaged high compared to current market prices.
The bidders spent a $17,319 for the 55 lambs, $ 98,247 for the 214 hogs, and $115,217 for the 68 market steers.
Steers. Marci McDonnell’s 1,297-pound grand champion steer sold for $3.05 a pound and Cory Wilson sold his 1,260-pound reserve champion steer for $2 a pound.
Birney Cattle Co. of Cadiz purchased the grand champion steer, and McNutt Interstate Express of Strasburg bought the reserve champion .
The average price a pound for the steers with the champions was $1.38 and without the champions, $1.34 a pound.
Did their homework. In the lamb and hog sale, the reserve champions sold for more than the grand champions.
In the case of the market lambs, Marci McDonnell’s 123-pound reserve champion lamb sold for $ 10.25 a pound, while Bill Wilson’s 120-pound grand champion received $6 a pound.
C.H. Birney Farms of Cadiz, Cadiz Animal Clinic, and Barnesville Livestock Auction purchased the reserve champion lamb, while First Federal Savings of Dover purchased the grand champion.
Julie Evans’ 260-pound reserve champion hog sold for $8 a pound, while Paul Welch’s 275-pound grand champion went for $5 a pound.
Larkin Construction of New Philadelphia purchased the reserve champion and Shaw Pallets and Shaw-Wilbert Vaults of Newcomerstown purchased the champion.
The hogs averaged $1.87 a pound with the champions and $1.83 a pound without the champions.
Market lambs averaged $2.77 a pound with the champions included and $2.57 a pound without the champions.
County 4-H Agent Ann Mumaw announced prior to the auction that each seller was donating $10 from the proceeds to help the relief effort in New York City.
Sale delayed. The bleachers were packed for the small animal sale, even though the sale was delayed nearly an hour because of problems with the public address system.
Sugar Valley Meats of Sugarcreek purchased Cody Hershberger’s grand champion market wether goat for $200. Cassie Mumaw’s reserve grand champion market wether was purchased by Miller Show Stock for $150.
Kneuss Creative Construction of New Philadelphia purchased the grand champion meat pen of rabbits owned by Wayne Riggle for $175.
David Pitrone received $125 for his reserve champion rabbit meat pen. It was purchased by the Fisher family of Dover.
Poultry outsold the other small animals, with the grand champion meat pen, owned by Todd Spillman, selling for $400 to Spillman Farms of Bolivar.
Park Farms of Canton purchased the reserve champion poultry meat pen for $300 from Scott Spillman.
Seven carts filled with related products were auctioned alternately with the 4-H projects and brought a total of $3,140, of which $ 62.80, or 2 percent of the sales, was donated to the Disaster Relief Fund.
Gardner Lumber paid $650, the highest cart price, for the first handmade cart. Tharp Farm paid $450 for the second cart.
Dairy sale. The annual dairy products sale totaled $45,250 , in addition to $5,430 in donations.
Jim Rowe, county dairy committee president, said there were 99 dairy projects entered in this year’s junior fair, about 10 more than last year.
About 40 percent of the money collected at the auction will be used to continue educational trips and programs for the youth. The rest is usually divided among the program participants, however, this year the youths agreed to donate 2 percent of the proceeds from the auction to the American Red Cross for relief efforts in the terrorist attacks.
Buyers one through six received a basket with approximately $75 worth of dairy products gift certificates and dairy products, along with a carved cherry stool. Bonnie Mohr from Glencoe, Minn., created the sketches of the six dairy breeds exclusively for this sale and Dutch Valley Woodworking in Sugarcreek designed and built the stools.
Mako’s Market & Pharmacy of Uhrichsville bought the first basket for $2,500. Agland Co-op of New Philadelphia took the second basket for $2,000 and Gordon Milk Transport of Sugarcreek bought the third one for $2,200.
Goshen Dairy Co. of New Philadelphia bought the fourth one for $1,850. while Dr. Jim Moore of Dover bought the fifth one for $ 2,100. Bill Zeigler of Automated Equipment Corp. was in heated competition with R.J. Wright & Sons, BP Oil, for the sixth basket but Zeigler won out with a bid of $3,050, the highest price paid for a basket. Total for the six baskets was $131,700.
Buyers seven through 40 received dairy products, Swiss cheese, butter and a smaller stool of the same design as the larger one, depicting one of the six dairy breeds. None of these baskets sold for less than $800; 10 sold for $1,000.
Auctioneers Dave Kaufman, Don Wallick and Steve Cronebaugh donated their services.
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