Help for Junior Exhibitors at a County Fair need opinions!

[LT]

We have always had a great Junior Fair Sale!  Our buyers are very supportive and never hesitate to open their hearts and wallets to our kids.  Our Sale Committee is considering limiting our kids to one animal through the sale ring.  The theory behind it is...some of the same kids get to go through the sale ring several times!  Not all of our 4-Hers get to sell individually.  It depends on their placings.  The other animals are sold in pens, so they are sold for more than packer bid. 

What do you think?

Thank you for your input!

 

[cowman 52]

Only one sale animal per kid unless both are champions-- tends to keep everyone in the game so to speak-- also auctioneer does not let a say 9th place animal bring more than a 1st place-- if someone wants to add on thats up to them but it is done after the sale-

 

[kfacres]

o boy can o worms..  

you bring something up that every co fair goes through.  but you still confused me towards the end of your post.. do you mind to translate that for me???

Anyways, my take on it, and I've been involved with 3 counties and 3 4H's...  all do it differently... I think both ways have some +'s...  I know in our county the auction takes forever with kids only selling 1 animal- regardless of # of champions.  And we're not huge..  I'd say about 10-15 lambs, 10-15 goats, 40 hogs, 10 steers...  We used to be much bigger when everyone could  sell more than one aniamls... I'd say our show has about 15 steers, 80 hogs, 30 lambs. 40 goats in it...

From what I have noticed...  prices seem to get much better, when kids are only selling 1 aniaml..  Buyers come to the sale to make "donations", not to get r@*ed of their pocket books...  Our buyers were getting slim, and since changing the rule to only one animal, more have started coming back...  IMO know one wants to sit there all night in the heat...  

now for the kids who have more than 1 species.. and put the work in.. I think they should get to sell each animal they do..  

There are just so many positives, negitives, advantages, and disadvantages....  it's unreal...  I think for our county being only allowed to sell one animal has been for the better...  better prices, shorter time period in the auction.   (dog)--- and now that I'm on the resale commitee in charge of moving the sheep and goats-- it doesn't matter because we still get the same number of animals, but it's easier to know how many are going to market instead of the commotion during the sale...  We sell by who the kid is, and what company wants to buy that animal, it doesn't matter what place you get, and that's the only way to do it.. IMO...  every animal is based off the fair market floor price- and can go up from there

 

[farwest]

We allow one big species and one small , or two small. I wouldn't think of telling a buyer he can't give a buck a pound more for the last calf in the ring than the champion. Its his money. That's a good way to ruin a sale

 

[Showmom]

In our county, 4-Hers  or FFA members can only sell one market animal.  Our champions of some species don't always sell as some youth are taking them on to the State Fair.  They may sell animal with a lessor ribbon.  All animals that go through the sale must go the locker plant or packing plant after the sale.  The money buyers pay 4-Her is only a premium, it does not purchase the animal itself.

 

[savaged]

Ours is each exhibitor can take one market project, and unlimited breed projects.  Kids can sell only one fat steer OR feeder calf, OR can sell two of the same market animals when taking swine, lambs, goats, rabbits, or chickens as pens.

Grand and reserve market animals are required to sell at the auction.

It works well for us.

 

[Dusty]

Our fair has a premium sale.  The animal does not change hands.  This way you can sell the champion and still take it to state fair or aksarben.  I think that each kid can sell two animals unless they have more than two champions then they can sell those as well.  I think it works good and by letting all the champions sell you are still rewarding the kids that bring the best livestock to fair.

 

[jamesgang892]

At our fair each exhibitor can sell one animal, and the buyer actually takes the animal or sends it with the man who floors the livestock. If you choose to keep it to show it to show at state fair or whatever you have to reserve the rights to it until a certain date. But if the animal dies between the sale and the date that they signed for they don't get paid.

 

[Simmimom]

Our fair allows kids to sell one of each type of market animal (must be the highest placing one if more than two in a category) ... lamb, pig, goat, steer, broilers, and turkeys... they may also sell one "commercial heifer" and "commercial pen of 3).  Yes, some kids go through more than once (and some not at all), but it does mean that even though a child( or family) may dominate a category (say pigs) they can't "take up" all the sale slots. 

 

[kanshow]

sell all you want at market price but only one can go thru the auction.

 

[BCCC]

We can only sell two animals of different species at our county fair, However you can floor as many as you would like.

 

[DLD]

We sell for bonus only and only one animal per exhibitor can sell at our county show.  Even if an exhibitor has multiple grands/reserve grands, they may parade them both (or I guess all, if it should ever happen that someone had 3 or more) but they will only get sold once (in the case of two they'll bring more than one would've but not as much as the two would've brought seperately).  I guess I think that's as it should be - why should one exhibitor get to sell more than once?  Here at least, that would tap out our buyers really fast. 

 

[Ms Ray]

every fair is so diffrent  we show at a few diffrent  at ours the kids can show and sell 2 animals only one can be beef, another the kids can show and sell one steer and one other (lamb, goat, pig) and another they can sell 6 with no more than 2 in each species.

 

[shortdawg]

We limit our kids to one steer and/or one hog but they can show more than one heifer but only get prize money for the top placing heifer. Only the steers and hogs are sold. We have a heifer sponsorship program with all that money being divided up between the heifer exhibitors.

 

[AAOK]

We sell for bonus only and only one animal per exhibitor can sell at our county show.  Even if an exhibitor has multiple grands/reserve grands, they may parade them both (or I guess all, if it should ever happen that someone had 3 or more) but they will only get sold once (in the case of two they'll bring more than one would've but not as much as the two would've brought seperately).  I guess I think that's as it should be - why should one exhibitor get to sell more than once?  Here at least, that would tap out our buyers really fast. 

Same with our County.  Only ONE animal in the Bonus Auction.  I think pretty standard in Oklahoma.

 

[CJC]

Only one sale animal per kid unless both are champions-- tends to keep everyone in the game so to speak-- also auctioneer does not let a say 9th place animal bring more than a 1st place-- if someone wants to add on thats up to them but it is done after the sale-

Same with ours. There is no limit on what our animals can bring.

 

[cowboybecoachin]

Our county has a premium sale, and the kid chooses which animal or project he sells. They can only sell one.The animal still belongs to the exhibitor to take to other shows or put in the freezer or whatever. We are a relatively poor county with little industry, and the total sales are a little over $100,000. It gets spread to a lotta kids. With the economy tougher, our champions did not bring as much as last year ($2300 for champ steer and 2150 on reserve). First and second place steers usually $1000-1200, with a couple bringing more. At least this pays much of your feed bill.
In the past, there were buyers for the hogs and lambs that became for sale after the show. They offer a floor price (market price) and at least give an outlet for the projects. i think that still exists, but a beef superintendent, I did not go into the hog/sheep area or watch them show this year.

 

[Nasc]

The numbers I have are rounded up, for exact stats you can check this page out-
http://www.rosscofairsales.com/results.shtml
Under the contacts page there is phone numbers for Jerry and Chris I’m sure both would be willing to help you with any questions you may have as to how they operate the Jr Fair Sale.

2008 Market project sold:
Rabbits  510
Hogs  305
Lambs 160
Goats 145
Steers 80
Chickens 45

Only one market project is allowed to be sold per member.
Chickens, Lambs and Rabbit projects can consist of more than one animal but is considered as one project. 

NASC

 

[herefordfootball]

At our fair you can sell two beef steers no matter what your placing.

 

[CMB]

Our fair allows the kids to sell 2 things of different species. Our grand steer usually brings around $15,000-$17,000. The fair board also tries to make it fair for everybody with a buyers group that just donates and the kids who get under the species average get an additional boost on the check. Some people hate this but most like it. Money was tight last year. The kids averaged about $100 less on their hogs, but we had grand turkey and got $1400 for a $50 project. We don't sell steers through the fair auction because we can get more on the rail selling it as freezer beef after the fair. We have a sale of champions for all the species grands and reserves. The 4her is responsible for getting a buyers group around for this sale. It doesn't matter what the animal places it can be sold. The price you receive depends on how well known your family is and how much business they do with the buyers. The kids who's family farms generally get more money than the kids that don't spend the big $$ with the buyers. The buyers are there to support the community, but especially their customers.