During the Youth Livestock Sale, Chaylin Stephens carries around her turkey as buyers make their bids. The average price for poultry at the YLS was $830.77 per pen.
More than 230 animals were sold during Sunday’s Youth Livestock Sale (YLS), which marked the end of this year’s Campbell County Fair. The sale helps support the year-long products of local 4-H and FFA members, who say goodbye to their sheep, goats, rabbits, chickens, steers and pigs in this real-life, hands-on experience of becoming an ag producer.
In total, the young livestock salesmen and women earned $525,581.25 from their animals. Local businesses attended the auction to place their bids on the CCF-approved livestock, knowing that the proceeds will be devoted to helping local youth save for college, develop herds, recover debts or prepare for future projects for next year.
After winning big at fair, the grand champions and reserve champions for goats, poultry, and swine saw major profits from their award-winning animals.
Cricket Ruby was the overall grand champion for the poultry division, and when Adels Consulting saw their opportunity to bring the birds home, they bid $1,250 for her three meat hens, making them the highest priced poultry to be featured at the fair.
In total, there were 13 lots of poultry sold during Sunday’s sale, accounting for $10,800 of the total funds generated throughout the event.
Laynee Jo Little was this year’s reigning grand champ for goats and also received the highest bid for the species when she sold her purple-ribbon ewe for $1,200 to C&B Operations. The average YLS price for goats per head was $922.27.
This year, goats brought in $10,145 at the sale, making 11 CCF participants hundreds of dollars richer.
Grand Champion for swine was Kya Long, who sold her pig for $16 per pound to Black Rock Mine Services, LLC. This price point is more than double the average price for YLS swine at $7.06 per pound, and 40 times the resale price of .40 cents per pound.
Other high-price sellers included Reo Edwards, who sold the most expensive beef product to Dr. Davis, ENT for $11,264, Trevor Mills who sold a $3,120 lamb to Thunder Basin Fencing and Kamryn Gladson, who unloaded his rabbit pen for $950.
This year, YLS participation rates dropped slightly amongst 4-H and FFA members in light of state public health orders that caused the fair board to postpone the Centennial Celebration in order to help slow the state-wide spread of COVID-19.
There were 25 fewer YLS sellers in 2020 than in 2019, with overall sales down $57,661 from last year.
Regardless, buyers showed out to the event with their check books in hand, ultimately raising more than $525,000 to help support local youth and the future of agriculture.
