Top Law. Co. Youth Fair placers featured at premium market sale

Area FFA students and 4-H members taking part in the Lawrence County Youth Fair gained some experience in showing off their entries while winning financial support from local agriculture businesses during the Market Livestock Premium Sale at the Lawrence County Fairgrounds in Freistatt on Saturday, June 1. About 55 FFA students and 4-H members participated in the sale.
During the sale, the participants showed off their entries in the order of which they placed in competition, with top entries going first. As the participants showed off their entries, supporters pledged financial support during an auction-style exhibition. Entries were shown in the following categories: Hams, chickens, rabbits, steers, hogs, sheep and goats.
For many of the youth who entered livestock into the competition, the sale was the culmination of several weeks, or even months, of hard work. Cade Shepherd, a member of the Mt. Vernon FFA whose sheep, Stormy, won Top County in competition, said he put in several hours getting Stormy ready to show.
“Whenever you have sheep, you have to walk them every day,” he said. “And … you’ve got to practice with them, keep them fed and watered, basic stuff in taking care of an animal, and you’ve just got to get the sheep used to you so whenever you go to a show, it’s not freaking out on you, (and) it’s comfortable.”
Rachel Callison, a member of the Verona FFA, also put in a lot of hours exercising her steer Otis Spunkmeyer. The hard work paid off; Otis won second in County.
“I feed him twice a day, once in the morning, once in the evening when we bring up all the heifers,” she said. “I work him seven times a week, every day. We also work on them practicing showing them. We’ll get them in their halters; we’ll put the show sticks on them just so they don’t freak out when we actually do show them.”
By contrast, Jolly Ranchers 4-H member Elizabeth Martin, whose chickens took Reserve Champion, said she didn’t exercise them because she wanted “to get them as a fat as possible.”
Wyatt Cordray, of the Mt. Vernon FFA, entered a ham in completion and won Grand Champion. He described the process for getting his entry ready.
“First, we buy our hams,” he said, “and then we put the salt cure on them (and) then fold them up in paper and (put them) in the nets and tie them off. Then we hang them up in our environmental ag building. After that, they smoke for nine hours.”
Each of the participants were given a certain amount of money by supporters who bid on their entries, with the larger amounts usually going to those who placed higher in competition. The winning bid for Cade Shepherd’s Stormy was $500, which Cade said would go “right back into the feed bill.” Jacob Hinkle, of the Verona Wild Clovers 4-H, won the Grand Championship in chickens; the winning bid for him was $1,000. He said he planned to save his money.
Rachel Callison had the highest bid of the evening at $1,600; she said she planned to use the money to pay towards tuition when she goes to college.

The top three winners in each category were:

Hams: Grand Champion: Wyatt Cordray, Mt. Vernon FFA
Reserve Grand Champion: Josie West, Mt. Vernon FFA
Third place: Dominic Dawson, Mt. Vernon FFA

Chickens: Grand Champion: Jacob Hinkle, Verona Wild Clovers 4-H
Reserve Grand Champion: Elizabeth Martin, Jolly Ranchers 4-H
Third place: Steven Hooten, Verona Wild Clovers 4-H

Rabbits: Grand Champion: Gunnar Fisher, Aurora FFA
Reserve Champion: Hayden Fisher
Third place: Miranda Baker, Verona Wild Clovers 4-H

Dairy Steers: Grand Champion: Roper Voskamp, Voskamp Family 4-H
Reserve Grand Champion: Reagan Voskamp, Voskamp Family 4-H

Steers:  Top County: Hayden Fisher, Aurora FFA
Second in County: Rachel Callison, Verona FFA
Third place: Jessie Conram, Aurora FFA

Hogs: Top County: Kaitlin Kleiboeker, Pierce City FFA
Second in County: Seth Callison, Verona FFA
Third place: Brenden Kleiboeker, Pierce City FFA

Sheep: Top County: Cade Shepherd, Mt, Vernon FFA
Second in County: Rylee Pope, Aurora FFA
Third place: Tiffany Crisamore, Miller Champs 4-H

Goats: Top County: Kimberly Pendleton, Mt. Vernon FFA
Second in County: Jacklyn Merritt, Aurora FFA
Third place: Hunter Craig, Jolly Ranchers 4-H