Tonight’s Allen County Fair 4-H and FFA Premium Livestock Auction isn’t just about the money.
Youngsters who sell their animals will come away with some cash, but the sales also will be the end of a long journey that for most started with a young animal and involved months of care and feeding and, as the fair approached, disciplining and grooming the animal for showing.
Such close association over several months’ time will leave many young owners with a touch of melancholy. While livestock are too big to be house-broke, they often do take on the role of pets.
The sale will work as it has since its inception in the 1950s. Market prices will be used to establish base bids for each class of animals, steers, hogs, lambs and goats.
People who bid may — and usually do — pay more than base bids, which gives youngsters their premiums.
If the buyer prefers, he or she may pay just the premium and let the animal go to a processor, who pays base bid costs. If the buyer takes possession of the animal, the full price, base bid plus premium, is paid.
Many businesses and individuals participate in the sale each year. Participation is a way to show appreciation and support for efforts youngsters have made to raise and prepare their animals for the fair.
To put potential buyers in a buying mood, pork burgers will be sold starting half an hour before the 7 o’clock sale.
THE LIVESTOCK auction will cap another year’s fair at Riverside Park.
Exhibits, open and 4-H, will be released to owners early Friday morning and 4-H members will gather at the show arena at 9 o’clock to clean up the grounds, share stories of successes and adventures and talk about what they want to do differently, or just the same, at the 2013 fair, which will be the 120th edition of the annual event.
The very last fair-related event will be the popular demolition derby at Humboldt Speedway, two miles east of Humboldt, starting at 7 p.m. Saturday. Admission will be $10 or two event tickets.
