Youth livestock auction caps off fair, months of hard work

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As rain pattered down outside, fairgoers filled the wooden bleachers under the roof of the Monte Farm and Home Arena at the Grays Harbor County Fair on Aug. 5 to watch 4-H and Future Farmers of America students present their animals at auction.

The 35th-annual Grays Harbor Youth Livestock auction featured a total of 80 livestock lots — steers, hogs, rabbits, lambs, turkeys, goats and one chicken — that sold for a total of $137,857, a comparable number to past auctions, organizers said.

For the students, the event was the culmination of the four-day fair, and of months of preceding hard work.

Kids from ages eight to 18 braved the gaze of hundreds of people — some with deep pockets — waiting for the right moment to raise their number.

Anticipation for that moment, even after participating in three previous auctions, put butterflies in the stomach of 4-H student Noah Tomaro a few minutes before entering the ring with his hog.

“It’s the biggest event,” he said. “Every single animal is being shown today.”

But it’s not necessarily the moment the animal and student enter the auction ring that triggers a deep-pocketed spectator to up their bid.

Students lay the groundwork for the auction in the weeks and months prior. In addition to feeding and training their animals, they schedule meetings with local businesses and individuals, solicit sponsorships from the community and recruit potential buyers.

In the three days of the fair leading up to the auction, and on auction day, students persuade and impress potential buyers that stroll through the livestock barns.

Anyone is a potential buyer, said Elma FFA student Levi Russell, so it’s best to treat everyone walking through the barns as such. Sometimes, buyers — normally dapper dressers — will scale down their style to remain low-key while walking through the barns, only to show up ready to dish out cash on auction day, he said.

Russell said the amount buyers are willing to pay usually depends less on what happens in the actual auction ring and more about the relationship between buyer and seller developed in the days or weeks beforehand.

Interacting with the public is one of the most valuable skills FFA and 4-H students can gain, said Cole Sigler, an Elma FFA who participated in his final youth livestock auction this year. Sigler, who started raising cows at nine years old, recalled being a “shy little kid” when first started in the program, but learned confidence in conversation when convincing people to buy his animals.

“Work your hardest with your animal, and talk to anybody that walks by on sale day,” Sigler advised younger students.

Sigler, a member of the Washington State Jr. Hereford Association, said his cow this year was a “registered” Hereford, meaning it was 100% true to the Hereford bloodline. He sold the $1,200-pound animal at $6 a pound — the most of any of the six steers.

Steers averaged $4.50 per pound and brought in more than $31,000 on Saturday.

Buyers in Grays Harbor County don’t shy away from high bids, said Heidi Kessler, a 4-H leader and mother of Kolby Kessler, who sold a hog at auction. While students at other fairs might be lucky to break even, Grays Harbor kids consistently profit from the auction.

Kessler emphasized the importance of the public-facing aspects of the FFA and 4-H programs in the aftermath of the pandemic, as some kids cope with effects from prolonged social isolation.

“It’s an amazing program that teaches kids how to get out and talk to the public and be professional,” Kessler said. “It teaches these kids they have to put in the effort, and there’s a reward at the end.”

Some of the money goes to help run the auction, but the rest goes to the students. Nathan Totten, who sold his pig — “Gordon Hamsey” — for $12.75 per pound (which tied for the highest price on any pig this year), said much of the money will go straight to a hog for next year’s project, and the rest to a savings account for college and a new car.

Hogs were the hot ticket at this year’s auction, with 36 lots bringing in $83,628. They sold, on average, for $9.19 per pound, the highest price buyers at the Grays Harbor Youth Livestock Auction have ever paid for pig.

While they might not generate the same capital as swine, rabbits are popular as a low-risk, low-investment endeavor, said Tyler Renz, an FFA advisor at Elma High School and vice president of the auction committee. Saturday’s auction featured 18 rabbit pens, most of which were raised through the rabbit co-op program led by Renz at Elma High School. He said the program has grown in recent years and is now up to about 20 participants.

Through the program, students pay a co-op fee to keep their rabbits at the school, and pay it back when the bunnies sell at auction. The co-op also relies on donations from local businesses, he said.

Amaya Phillips, who has raised rabbits for several years through the co-op, said the program has given her an opportunity to participate in the program despite living in an apartment and not having ample livestock space to raise them.

“It just feels so proud to raise something small and make it something big,” Phillips said a few minutes before taking her six rabbits — three New Zealand/Rex mixes and three Champagne d’Argent — into the auction ring.

An important part of showing the rabbits at auction, she said, would be to shield the rabbit’s eyes to keep it calm. Her own composure was a non-issue.

“I’m actually not nervous,” Phillips said. “I have a great face. Also, I’m a dancer, I’m a performer, so I’m used to crowds.”

She strode around the ring smiling and cradling her bunny.

“I love doing this,” she said. “It’s so fun!”

The Grays Harbor Youth Livestock Auction began in 1989 and has “grown immensely” since then, said John Fields, chairman of the auction committee and one of its founding members. He recalled some early auctions had fewer than 20 lots.

Since then, the auction has come full circle, with many 4-H and FFA alumni attending the auction to reciprocate the support they received a few decades ago.

“If it wasn’t for the community supporting the kids, we wouldn’t have anything here,” Fields said.

The Grays Harbor Youth Livestock Auction is accepting donations through the end of August, Renz said. They can be mailed to P.O. Box 1536 in Elma.

Contact reporter Clayton Franke at 406-552-3917 or clayton.franke@thedailyworld.com.

Eero Lenss prepares his market turkey a few minutes before showing at the Grays Harbor Youth Livestock Auction on Saturday, Aug. 5. (Clayton Franke / The Daily World)