ASHLAND – It was an emotional evening for Samantha Augustine as she said goodbye, not only to her market steer but also to showing livestock at the Ashland County Fair.
Augustine had both the grand champion market steer and the grand champion hog this year. She also raised last year’s grand champion steer.
But at 19, the freshman at Ohio State University Agricultural Technical Institute said this year will be her last time showing.
“It’s sad and amazing at the same time,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking because I love this and I want to do it forever, but I can’t. I have to grow up.”
Augustine teared up as she watched the auction price climb for her steer, which she named P. Diddy.
“It’s a lot of hard work. A lot,” Augustine said of raising a steer for the fair. “We rinse them twice a day, morning and night for 30 minutes. Then we brush and work their hair morning and night, every single day, 365 days a year pretty much, from the time they come to the barn in the fall.”
Augustine’s 1,475-pound steer sold to Heffelfinger’s Meats for $10 per pound, totaling $14,750.
The reserve grand champion steer, shown by Destiny LaFever, weighed 1,367 pounds and went for $6,493 to Harris Automotive.
LaFever, a 15-year-old sophomore at Crestview, said she felt her hard work paid off this week.
“It was a really good feeling,” she said.
LaFever plans to put the money into a fund for college.
The grand champion dairy steer, raised by Logan Fulk, sold for $5,463 ($3.50 per pound) to E.R. Boliantz. The reserve champion winner was Payton Eichelberger.
In the baby beef category, Haleigh Stephens’ animal was the grand champion winner for Stephens’ second consecutive year, and Taylor Dawson’s was the reserve grand champion.
Stephens’ cow sold for $5,984 to Kinder Morgan. The company also bought the grand champions in the broiler, turkey and rabbit categories.
Stephens, a Hillsdale sixth grader, said her cow, Bentley, was tame this year compared to last year’s cow, Fireball.
This year marked Dawson’s tenth year showing baby beef, and she’s president of the Baby Beef Club.
A freshman at The Ohio State University ATI, Dawson said she plans to use the money from her cow to help pay for college expenses, like books and gas to commute to her school in Wooster. The animal went for $5,055 to Jamison Well Drilling and Pump Services.
Two sisters, Kinsey and Kayla Dress, raised the grand and reserve champion turkeys, respectively.
The duo said it was rewarding to raise the turkeys together and then succeed together as well.
Kinsey is a 17-year-old senior at Mapleton who was showing for her third year. Her bird sold to Kinder Morgan for $1,000.
Kayla is a 19-year-old studying dental assisting at North Central State College. Wellington Implement bought her turkey for $750.
Nathaniel Oblinger’s market rabbits were the grand champion winners, selling for $1,150 to Kinder Morgan. Brady Barker raised the reserve champion rabbits, which went to First Knox National Bank for $875.
Oblinger, a 10-year-old fifth grader at Ashland Christian School, said he showed goats last year but wanted to try something new.
He raised the rabbits in the garage and was pleased he didn’t have to “fuss with them” as much as he would with a goat.
Barker, and 11-year-old Mapleton fifth grader, was also a first-timer showing rabbits. He said he thought the judges appreciated the animals’ meat-to-fat ratio.
The grand champion pen of broilers, raised by Aiden Hoffman, also went to Kinder Morgan for $1,000.
Hoffman, a 10-year-old Hillsdale fifth grader, said he prefers raising pigs and was surprised to win in the broiler category.
“I was surprised because my brother got the grand champion two years ago, and I didn’t think I was ever going to get it,” he said.
Madison Hoffman, a 17-year-old homeschooled senior, raised the reserve champion broilers and said she was pretty happy with the result.
“It was a nice way to go out on my last year,” she said. “I can kind of go out with a bang.”
Her animals went to S&S Agri-builders for $925.
