Jared, Daphne and I all headed to the Yamhill County Fair this evening.  I wanted to show Daphne all the different animals, we wanted to go to the rodeo and I wanted to see what was going on at the auction.

We had a ton of fun looking at all the animals, and we even had some exhibitors show their lambs to Daphne, much to her delight.

The rodeo was even a blast, and Daphne managed to sit through about 4 events.  I even got to see 5 bull rides before she decided it was time to leave.

As we were walking out, we went by the livestock auction again to check on the steers.  Some friends of my grandma have steers in Yamhill County that they sell every year at market, and I wanted to see how they did.

The Reserve Champion steer went for $7.25 per pound.  That is quite an investment considering that the steer weighed around 1300 pounds.  Usually, when the steer goes for that big of a ticket, it is used as a tax write off, and the meat is donated to a local charity that can use it to feed hungry families.  The nice thing is that the exhibitor gets to keep the money for all that hard work taking the steer.

Sadly, the entire auction did not go that well.  Things went downhill quickly, and the other steers around were going for $1.50 per pound having a hard time creeping up to $2.00 per pound (the low extimate for steers at this particular fair).  Jared and I were looking at eachother wishing that we had the funds to spend some money on some meat for a local kid.  I’ve been in the situation where you see your hard work slowly looking like it was for naught as the price hangs around $1.80 per pound.

The moral of the story is that you should call your extension agent, get in contact with some local 4-H kids and consider buying a market animal at the fair.  Either the meat will be good eating and a local student will have a chance to go to college (which is what the money is usually used for) or you will be supporting a cause where kids get off their lazy butts and get something done while providing a food source for a hungry family while you get a nice tax write-off.

You can get together with friends to buy an animal as well, and you can split up the cost that way.

Enjoy some good eating and support your local future food producers in the meanwhile.