Whitney Finley’s grand champion steer brought a beefy price at the Montezuma County Fair Junior Livestock Sale Saturday, earning her $13,500 from buyer Keesee Motors. (By comparison, last year’s grand champion steer sold for $3,600.) Her steer was bred and fed in Montezuma County and weighed 1,336 pounds.
Buyers were feeling generous and competitive Saturday. The fair sale brought in $208,800, which is $64,000 more than last year’s auction.
Ryan Daves’ 1,152-pound reserve champion beef sold to Citizens State Bank for $6,600.
Cayce Lockhart showed the reserve champion goat, which sold to First National Bank for $2,900.
The grand champion swine was exhibited by Brenna Leonard and sold for $5,100. Southwest Memorial Hospital bought Tyler Weir’s reserve champion swine for $5,200.
The grand champion poultry, a pen of turkeys raised by Cutter Higgins, sold for $1,600 to Mountain States Co-op. Joshua Ramons’ reserve champion poultry were purchased by Southwest Memorial for $1,300.
A bidding coalition called the Handsome Four bought Catharine Busing’s grand champion rabbit for $1,500. Alyssa Busin’s reserve champion rabbit sold to Montezuma Hearing for $2,100.
In the bred-and-fed category, Aaron Hackett’s champion pig was purchased by Comfort Air for $3,600, and Rylee Lindsley’s reserve champion sold for $3,900 to Town and Country Furnishings.
The reserve champion bed-and-fed sheep was raised by Sarah Baker, and it sold for $2,400 to Southwest Ag.
Southwest Memorial Hospital bought the most animals, 12, and bid the most, at $25,800.
Not all fair buyers took home meat, however, Some exhibitors purchased their animals back. The buy-back price is considerably lower than the bid price — $1.10 per pound for steers, for example, $.95 for goats, $.65 for swine and $.80 per pound for sheep.
And some livestock raiser, who planned to show their animals at the Colorado State Fair, didn’t enter their animals in the livestock.
