Junior livestock sale caps Farm Show Week
BY JACK RUBLEY
HARRISBURG - The ribbons,
plaques and trophies had all been
awarded. The applause had died
and the crowds had. thinned. For
Farm Show’s young livestock
exhibitors all that remained on
Friday was the sale of their entries
to a host of faithful buyers who
turn out year after year to support
the state’s 4-H and FFA livestock
programs.
Ironically, sale time becomes
the most difficult hurdle of ail for
many of the same exhibitors who
had worked the hardest for top
Farm Show market honors.
Regardless of the premium placed
on the show’s best steers, lambs
and hogs, the parting is never
easy.
Once again the sale began with
the market hogs, and Hatfield
Packing headed the list of buyers,
purchasing 95 of the sale’s total of
169 head, including the grand
champion. Exhibited by Lehigh
County’s Todd Bennecoff, the top
pig sold for $lO a pound for a total
of $2,360.
Danny George of George’s
Leroy Fox (left) of Fox’s Markets paid $6,850 for Joe
.Kuzemchak’s top market lamb. Also pictured are Fox's
grandchildren, Jeremy (left) and Jason Fox.
Farm Show’s other champions
BY JACK HUBLEY every dollar I spend at the fairs
HARRISBURG Purple comes back to me,” Kreider says
rosettes, golden trophies and emphatically,
championship titles provide Wilmer Kreider practices what
pleasant memories. But in the final he preaches. In addition to the
analysis nothing breeds com- Farm Show, he attends six county
petition like the color green-in the fairs and roundups, spending an
form of cash, of course. average of $3,000 to $5,000 on junior
And from a monetary stand- market animals,
point, no other Keystone State Kreider has purchased Farm
livestock show rewards its winners Show animals for the past eight
more handsomely than the Farm years, and this year’s tab came to
Show’s market animal events. nearly (7,000 for eight lambs and
After running the gauntlet of the four steers,
state’s stiffest competition, the But, when it comes to buying
lucky exhibitor of the show’s top show champions, a cash return is
steer and hog can expect to earn in not foremost in Kreider’s mind,
the neighborhood of eight to 10 Rarely does he run special
dollars a pound for his efforts, promotions or raise the price of his
What the lamb sale lads in total fair purchases across the meat
poundage, it makes up for in price, counter. “I believe in agriculture
Last year’s champion topped out at and I believe in young people,”
$6O a pound, with the 1906 cham- Kreider says, pointing out that
pion dipping only $lO to $5O a attracting youth to the livestock
pound. industry is one way to insure a
No buyer will refute the bright future for agriculture,
statement that going home with a Jerry Clemens of Hatfield
county or state champion market Packing Company concurs,
animal is good public relations. Although a number of hog
But just how much-that PR is producers have begun selling to
worth in terms of advertising Hatfield because of the company’s
dollars is open to argument. involvement with youth, Clemens
“I do believe it pays in the long maintains that Hatffeld’s prime
run,” says Wiling Kreider, owner motivation for attending some 50 to
of the four Willie * the Butcher 60 shows annually is to promote the
stores operating from Stauffers of raising of livestock. “We want to
Klasel Hill’s four Lancaster County keep the young people interested in
locations. “I’m convinced that agriculture, because we’re going
Foodliner, Bethlehem, paid $1,452
for Chad Folker’s reserve
champion after offering the top bid
of $6 a pound.
The Country Butcher Shop of
Carlisle bought Greg Christman’s
champion middleweight for $1.75
per pound, and Emery’s Buying
Station went home with Dave
Hess’s lightweight champion after
offering $1.45. The remaining
reserve division champions all
went to Hatfield Packing.
The hog sale total reached
$32,167, for an average of 83 cents a
pound with champions, and 74
cents not counting the top entries.
Leroy Fox of Fox’s Markets can
be labeled a “champion” Farm
Show buyer in more ways than one.
With the top bid of $5O a pound, Fox
bought his 10th consecutive Farm
Show champion market lamb, this
year exhibited by Joe Kuzemchak
of Pleasant Gap, Centre County.
The total tab for the 137-pound
lamb came to $6,850.
The show’s reserve champion,
shown by Christin Chupp of New
Holland, Lancaster County, sold
for $8 a pound to Willie the Butcher
For nMriy 20 years Danny . .orge (left) of George’s Foodhner has been going home
with Farm Show s grand champion steer. This year he paid $11,648 for Mike Messick’s
champion. Secretary of Agriculture Richard Grubb was on hand to congratulate Messick.
of Stauffers of Kissel Hill.
Walter M. Dunlap&Sons of
Lancaster bought Margaret Herr’s
champion light heavyweight for
$1.50, and Evergreen Tractor Co.
of Lebanon offered the top bid of
$l.lO for Mark Tracy’s champion
middleweight.
The sale’s 122 lambs sold for an
average per-head price of $158.89
counting the champions, and
$104.81 not counting the top lambs.
The small arena’s bleachers
swelled with spectators with the
opening of the steer sale,
traditionally the highest priced
sale of the day.
For nearly two decades, Danny
George, of George’s Foodliner,
Bethlehem, has been buying the
champion Farm Show steer. This
year he kept his record intact by
offering a bid of $9.10 per pound for
Mike Messick’s champion
Chianina-Angus champion. The
total bill for the Dauphin County
exhibitor’s 1,280-pound steer came
to $11,648.
A new Farm Show buyer,
Bonanza Steak House of Thorn
dale, took home the reserve
champion. Exhibited by Kelly
Rohrer of Manheim, the show’s
number-two beef went for $3.20 per
pound for a total of $4,224.
to need product down the road,”
says Clemens.
Although Hatfield has failed to go
home with the top Farm Show hog
only once since 1975, Clemens
emphasizes that the company’s
god is to support the entire show.
“We don’t sit there just to buy the
champion,” he says. At last
Friday’s sale, Hatfield bought a
total of 125 Farm Show hogs, in
cluding 96 in the sale, 10 hogs that
were resold and an additional 20
outweightMiogs that never made it
to the auction block.
Clemens notes that the firm’s
involvement with livestock shows
dates back more than two decades,
and will continue into the
foreseeable future.
Although he’s best known as
Farm Show’s grand champion
steer buyer, Danny George also
believes in supporting the entire
sale, and does so by buying
numerous animals of all three
species. George, who owns
George’s Foodliner of Bethlehem,
spent more than $25,000 for 10
steers, 20 hogs and 15 lambs this
year. He’s been a Farm Show
regular for a quarter of a century,
and has missed buying the grand
champion steer only once in the
past IS years.
Although George’s active bid
ding has a major impact on Farm
* r t 4
Carlos R. Leffler, Inc., of champion middleweight went to
Richland offered the top bid of Glen Kilmer for 76 cents a pound,
$2.50 per pound for the champion and Nichole High’s reserve
middleweight steer shown by lightweight steer was purchased
Lebanon County’s Leigh Hitz. The by Fulton Bank for 83 cents a
champion lightweight steer, shown pound.
by Dwayne Coble of Lebanon The 107 steers sold for $116,694.
County, went to Willie the Butcher Overall, the per-pound sale
for a bid of $l.lO. average was 89 cents with
Michelle Dean’s reserve champions and 79 cents without.
Jerry Clemens (left) bought Todd Bennecoff's grand
champion hog for $lO a pound.
in youth
invest
Show sale prices, this year’s
$25,000 tab represents only about 25
or 30 percent of his total annual
investment in junior livestock
events.
In addition to buying at Farm
Show and many county fairs, tie
sponsors an annual 4-H dinner
during the week following Farm
Show. The event is held at the
Glass Slipper, a restaurant in
Bethlehem owned by his daughter,
and all 4-H’ers eat free of charge.
This year 250 people attended the
banquet.
His involvement with youth
shows can hardly be considered a
money-making proposition, notes
George, who has no idea how much
advertising value buying show
champions may have. Nor does he
care.
“I get a lot of satisfaction out of
it,” George notes. “I like the kids,
and they get a lot out of it, too.”
Like Danny George, Leroy Fox
derives a lot of satisfaction from
supporting junior market events
even though he’s more of a
specialist. The owner of Fox’s
Markets, with locations in'Mid
dletown, Hershey, Harrisburg and
the Cedar Cliff Mall, Fox buys only
lambs at Farm Show. “I think
there’s a lot that can be done with
lamb, but it isn’t a meat that’s
really been promoted,” bays Fox.
Just as buying ||| champion
Farm Show steer has become a
tradition for Danny George, Fox
normally buys the top lamb. In
addition to offering the top bid of
$5O a pound for this year's
champion, Fox also was high
bidder on 46 other lambs, bringing
his total Farm Show tab to $14,300.
“At one time we bought beef at
the Farm Show,” recalls For
“Then a couple of kids came up to
me and talked about their lambs. I
watched the kids selling their
lambs, and I thought, gee, that’s
great.”
Fox has been buying Farm Show
lambs for 12 years, now, and has no
intention of discontinuing Us
support. “We could spend dollars
and get a lot more out of it, but
here you’re helping the kids,” says
Fox. “I think that 4-H is »
tremendous program. ”
Curiously enough, Fox’s in
volvement with youth livestock
shows seems to have come full
circle. After returning home witt
his Farm Show purchases Isat
year, Fox found that one of titf
lambs he had bought was going to
be a mother. Since he and his wile
live on a farm, the solution
obvious.
After more than a decade of
supporting junior livestock
tivities, Leroy Fox finally had a
H project” of his own.