Sale Prices@ smaller fairs

[sawboss]

"Premium", is a nice word for donation.  Our buyers realize that they are not purchasing an animal only rewarding the county youth for their hard work.  As stated by others these buyers are local businesses and merchants that make their livings off of sales of their products and services.  It is also a tax write off that they can use.  We also have groups known as buyer pools that solicit smaller donations in order to purchase animals.  In our case the feed store where we purchased all of our feed bought a calf and our bank bought the other.  The add-on money came from local businesses that we patronize on a regular basis, banks, insurance companies, fuel distributors etc.  The word "politics" always pops up, I like the word "loyalty" better and explain to my sons that we need to continue to patronize those businesses that support them.  As a business owner I understand this very well, and I also remember those companies that do not help us when it comes time to purchase needs for our company.  This probably is a different thread, but what annoys me is when the buyer is not called on personally by the student with a Thank you note in hand to acknowledge their appreciation for the support.  We have helped purchase animals the past two years for kids at a school different than my sons' school, and yet to hear from the students.  I have even asked the Ag. Science teacher what we bought, I did not receive an answer.

 

[Dusty]

"Premium", is a nice word for donation.  Our buyers realize that they are not purchasing an animal only rewarding the county youth for their hard work.  As stated by others these buyers are local businesses and merchants that make their livings off of sales of their products and services.  It is also a tax write off that they can use.  We also have groups known as buyer pools that solicit smaller donations in order to purchase animals.  In our case the feed store where we purchased all of our feed bought a calf and our bank bought the other.  The add-on money came from local businesses that we patronize on a regular basis, banks, insurance companies, fuel distributors etc.  The word "politics" always pops up, I like the word "loyalty" better and explain to my sons that we need to continue to patronize those businesses that support them.  As a business owner I understand this very well, and I also remember those companies that do not help us when it comes time to purchase needs for our company.  This probably is a different thread, but what annoys me is when the buyer is not called on personally by the student with a Thank you note in hand to acknowledge their appreciation for the support.  We have helped purchase animals the past two years for kids at a school different than my sons' school, and yet to hear from the students.  I have even asked the Ag. Science teacher what we bought, I did not receive an answer.

Kids need to be taught that whenever someone buys something from you, whether it is in the county fair sale, the sale barn or the off the farm, after the sale you should always shake their hand and say thank you.  This practice is getting overlooked more and more.

 

[kanshow]

The kids in our county fair don't get their premium checks until they've met with the buyer.  They usually meet after the sale and arrange a time to pick up the check.    Our county HIGHLY suggests that they bring a plate of cookies - something along that order - as a way of thanking the buyer. 

 

[Ruchian]

Kids need to be taught that whenever someone buys something from you, whether it is in the county fair sale, the sale barn or the off the farm, after the sale you should always shake their hand and say thank you.  This practice is getting overlooked more and more.

I always go shake the buyers hand and personally thank them right after the auction.  Then we have to write a thank you card to the buyer which we have to give to the fair board before we can get our checks.  Within a couple of weeks I also hand deliver a buyers gift.  This is what most people around here do.

 

[4Ts4H]

The way it works in our county, there is a meat packer that comes in and base bids all of the animals.  The day of the auction you get a sheet that has the base bid price, the auction amount is the premium money only that the kids get over and above the base bid, if you are the winning bidder you have the opion to either take the animal or not, if you do you pay the base bid + premium, if not the order buyer pays the base and the bidder pays only the premium money.  I know we are from a much larger community, but the buyers also have the option of paying for the meat and sending it to a charity. 
The add-on sheets are filled out for anyone that doesn't buy your animal from the auction but wants to donate to your animal, we go around to everyone we do business with in a year and many wouldn't purchase an animal, but are willing to give a small amount to the kids and that is what the add-ons are for.  The add-ons are a little more work for the auction committee, but it has been a huge success in our county, at the KJLS and the American Royal.

I need to approach our county with this sort of "add-ons".  In our county, some communities support very well, and some (i.e. our town) do not.  After talking to some of the business people in town, I have come to the conclusion that they have no idea how the 4-H auction works.  They come out and buy lambs and a few hogs, but NO cattle.  They are afraid of the amount I guess.  This year it forced us to leave our community and go to the other towns in the county to buy feed.  We will se if that helps, or if there really is some black-ball politics at play here.

 

[BCCC]

Every year we have gift Baskets made, one for each buyer, and then we give them bottles of water, and we give these to them as soon as we get out of the ring. And then afterwards we have a buyers dinner where the 4Hers and FFAers serve food to the buyers and then after they are done eating they settle up.

 

[NHR]

The Grand Champion steer at our county show brought $22,000.00

 

[showsteer09]

Had the sale yesterday at Perry County in Ohio..... Champion Dairy Feeder 1.50 lb Res.. 1.20lb Champion steer 4.35lb res 3.30lb goat 7.70 lbs res 7.20 Lamb 7.40lbs res 7.00lbs  I didnt stay for the pigs we got out after the steer went on the trailer......    The Fat steers avraged 1.50 across the board so not to bad The steers where way up from Last year... We had champion the last year and only got 2.75 lb

 

[GONEWEST]

Our county has no sale. Our state Champion brings a flat 5,000. I know of steers being bought at $20,000. I believe with all my heart, in time, the champion here COULD bring as much as they do at Houston or more. Many kids here sell theirs for freezer beef.

 

[minimoo38]

The Grand Champion steer at our county show brought $22,000.00

holy COW!!  (cow) that is pretty awesome.


the "premium" (ha, ha, ha...  :) money at our county fair is based off of whatever ribbon you get in class. purple= $1.80, blue= $1.50, red=$1.20. no extra money is given for a champion or anything. the premium money is split between all 4-H projects. so, a plate of cookies got the same ribbon money as my avatar pix, Kahlua. She was Champion Market Heifer & Grand Champion Overall Market Animal.