Children show animals at Junior Livestock Auction
CONNOQUENESSING TWP — For Briar Kennedy, 8, the hardest part of taking care of Lightning Bolt, a 1,350-pound Grand Champion Steer, is the sheer size difference.
Briar showed Lightning Bolt at the Butler Farm Show’s Junior Livestock Auction on Thursday, Aug. 8, as cheers erupted from the stands. The auction saw 189 animals for sale, including poultry, rabbits, sheep and hogs.
As the auctioneer called for bids, buyers raised their numbers above the seats and stands of the packed barn.
Three records were broken during the auction. Colt Douglass, 10, of East Brady, who presented the Grand Champion Poultry Pen, fetched a record-breaking sum of $7,000 for the birds he helped raise as two-day-old chicks. The Grand Champion Rabbit Meat Pen, presented by Cheyenne Henry, also broke a record, fetching $3,500. Additionally, the Reserve Grand Champion Market Lamb, presented by Melissa Drake, broke the record at $50 a pound.
Lightning Bolt was sold for $8 a pound and donated back to the North Washington Rodeo. The steer was born on a neighboring farm in Valencia belonging to Briar’s great-uncle, said Briar’s father, Ryan Kennedy. Briar, who comes from over four generations of farmers and animal showers, has been taking care of Lightning Bolt since he was a calf. Each day, Briar feeds him and takes him on walks. Briar also washes and clips him, his father added.
As Briar continues his time in 4-H, the prize money will help offset the purchase of another calf, his father said.
“The grand goal is, whenever he’s done with it, to have a pretty little pot of money for college,” Kennedy said. “And if he doesn’t go to college, maybe even, you know, a down payment on a house or a little jump-start in life.”
Kennedy took part in 4-H himself as a child, he said, adding that watching his son continue the tradition is like passing the torch.
Like Briar, Adalynn Guiher, 9, is in her first year with 4-H. She said she will save some of her prize money from selling Max, the 138-pound Grand Champion Market Lamb, and Skettle-Legs, his long-legged pen partner who didn’t make the Grand Champion cut. The remaining portion of the prize money will go to the purchase of another lamb, Adalynn said.
Although she’ll get to keep the proceeds from the sale, parting with the Suffolk sheep, whom she has cared for on her family’s farm in New Castle since the animals’ birth, is bittersweet. Knowing they could go home with a buyer makes her sad, she said.
Taking care of the sheep involves keeping them trim: Adalynn takes the animals for laps around the barn and house. There is also a treadmill in the barn, she said.
Catching the sheep and corralling them back into the pen can sometimes be a struggle. “They’re very fast,” she said.
Brayden Geagan, 17, of Chicora, whose three lambs were in an adjoining pen, is entering his last year in 4-H, and said the past eight years showing and caring for animals has taken a lot of hard work. But it also has given him, in return, many memories.
Before showing Willow, Concrete and Stetson, Brayden said he fluffs the lambs’ legs up, clips, conditions and exercises them.
“We jump them every day,” he said. “They work on their stances. There’s lots of repetition.”
Before the sale began, 4-H members walked around the stands and introduced themselves to potential buyers and visitors, including Lisa and Bryan Neely, of Michigan.
The couple traveled to Butler County to visit their grandchildren in Evans City. While their grandchildren did not sell any animals at the livestock auction this year, Lisa Neely said she wanted to show support for the children who put in the effort to show and sell their animals.
The open barn across from the auction held livestock including two cows belonging to Neely’s grandsons, Waylon Cox, 7, and Brody Frederick, 12. Brody earned an award for showmanship and his cow, Rosie, was recognized as Junior Supreme Heifer, she said.
Walking between the two barns, Neely said the Junior Livestock Auction was an opportunity for community members to support young people, some of whom will be investing the funds in their college education or other pursuits.
During the event, scholarships also were presented to Ryleigh Henry, who attends Slippery Rock University and studies biology; Mayson Kennedy, who plans to attend West Liberty University for criminal justice; Sarah Mitchell, who will attend Kent State University for speech pathology; and Jennifer Morrison, who intends to study biomedical engineering at Case Western University.
Livestock auction sale committee member Donna Frazier said 4-H members send potential buyers letters ahead of the sale.
“Some of (the children) have been raised in agriculture,” Frazier said.
She said caring for the animals teaches responsibility and love of community. Once sold, Frazier said the animals usually are butchered for meat. Sometimes the animals are donated back to the 4-H Club or other organizations.
This year, three different clubs — the Dairy Club, Livestock Club and Beef Breeding Club — raised charity animals. Proceeds from the Dairy Club Charity Hog went to medical treatment for Randy Freehling, a Kittanning man diagnosed with leukemia. Money raised from the sale of the Beef Breeding Charity Lamb went to Bunton Dairy Farm in Beaver County, which recently lost a barn in a fire. Proceeds from the Livestock Club Charity Hog benefited nonprofit It’s About the Warrior Foundation, which assists post-911 veterans from the tri-state area.
“That means the kids in that club raised it, they’re going to auction it off and donate that money to whatever charity is listed,” Frazier said.
“That’s another good thing, another way kids are giving back to their community as they’re donating those charity animals,” she said.
