The sun and heat didn’t stop hundreds from gathering inside the Burns Pavilion for the Umatilla County Fair’s youth livestock auction.
Lambs, goats, steers and more drew in the audience Saturday, Aug. 10, with 4H and FFA students presenting their animals. The annual auction occurs during the final day of the fair, on the grounds of the Eastern Oregon Trade and Event Center in Hermiston.
More than 100 young people presented their livestock to the crowd, which stayed more or less quiet during the auction as people kept track of which animals they wanted to purchase and how much they were going for. One of the higher bids was $39 per pound for Umatilla County Fair Princess Katherine Henning’s goat, which Banner Bank purchased.
An emotional experience
Jacee James, 16, from Echo, was at her first competition and auction. She said she has been involved with FFA on the essays and leadership side of the program, but thought the shows looked fun and decided to raise a lamb.
Ziggy, her Hampshire lamb, weighs 113 pounds and sold for $15.50 during the auction.
“It was hectic,” James said of the morning and the sale. “The environment of it is exciting, the adrenaline of it.”
Although a first-timer, James said this would not be her last show. She’s learned a lot, she said, beyond just how to care for a lamb — she now understands more about showmanship and the significance of what she’d been writing about in her FFA essays.
She likes the community of peers doing it all right alongside her, she said, even though it was tough for her to deal with the emotions involved during the auction. After Ziggy’s turn, James’s eyes were red-rimmed and her posture seemed subdued, but a few friends came up and talked through it with her, offering their comfort and encouragement with pats on the back and quiet words.
“I almost started crying, it kind of sucks,” she said. “I’m going to try to spend a lot of time with him tonight.”
James is not alone in struggling with her emotions over the sale. Some children kept their animals close to them even after their sale, offering snacks and petting their heads.
Umatilla County Fair Sale Committee member Jennifer Shaw said it’s normal for children to cry or feel sad, especially with their first animal or just if they got particularly attached. But for others, she added, they see it as the business transaction it is and are less emotionally involved.
Community support
Shaw’s been involved with youth auctions for about 15 years, she said, ever since her own children were young and participated in them. During the Aug. 10 auction, Shaw spray painted different colors onto the animals after being sold, indicating where they are headed after the fair.
Most buyers told the auctioneers to “turn” the animal, she said, meaning they don’t want the animal for their own consumption and instead, they want to sell their purchase back at a lower price and to essentially donate that difference in money to 4H or FFA. The livestock that is turned is sent to a packer and eventually onto a company like Tyson Foods to end up in a store.
Those that are not turned are generally sent to slaughterhouses and packers, with the buyers keeping the meat for themselves or their company’s employees. Buyers at the auction were mostly local businesses, including companies such as Smitty’s Ace Hardware in Hermiston, D&B Supply in Pendleton, Umatilla Electric Co. and Murdock Cattle Co. out of Echo. For the most part, these companies turned back the animals and will be able to write off the cost as a donation.
The sellers — the children — will get to earn that full cost auctioned at the time of sale. For some, that can mean thousands of dollars for a single animal, thus making a difference in their futures.
Regardless of the money earned, though, it’s a learning experience for the young people involved, and based on their smiles throughout the event, even the sad ones, it’s a learning experience they truly enjoy.
