We get allot of computer generated letters anymore, put then the amount of effort that goes into them has increased, some of these letters are 2 or 3 pages long. It seems that the written letters come from the younger exhibitors, the creative letters come from the older ones. There are over 200 exhibitors at our county fair, we receive maybe 6 or 7 letters each year, my boss receives anywhere from 20 to 40 letters each year, but he buys 2-3 beef, 2 hogs, and a veal for his family and has bought and donated back to the scholarship fund as many as 8 hogs, 2 beef and 5 lambs on top of what he takes home. We live in a large county it could take some of the kids over an hour oneway just to get to our office so we see some kids from the town our office is in but that is about it.
I do not know when it started, it was going on when my boys started, the buyers receive a gift from the exhibitor right at the auction, once the animal is back in the pen here comes the exhibitor with anything from a hand made craft and a thank-you card to a gift basket full of BBQ supplies, seasonings, cook book and libations, most the gifts are somewhere in between, a pig wind chime, lamb oven mitt and dish towels, a book of Cattle in America, things like that. I have had to use the wagon to haul my bosses bounty back to his car. It kind of works out, you go thank your buyer personally, shake their hand, and give them their gift, most kids will send a letter as well after the fair.