Fair Livestock and Fiber Auction

Orleans County 4-H Fair Livestock Auction

Saturday, July 27,  7:00 PM, in the Livestock Show Ring

What is the Sale all about?

The 4-H livestock sale is where 4-H youth who are participating in market animal projects sell their project animal or fiber and fiber products. The proceeds of each sale go to the individual 4-H members. Many of these young people put their sale earnings toward college, in addition to using the money to offset the costs of raising their animals and purchase a new market animal for the next year.

When you purchase a 4-H animal at the sale, you are getting a high quality product. Market animals are raised individually in the best conditions and on the best feed available.

How does the Sale work?

On the day of the sale, the barns and the sale arena are open at 6:30 pm. You sign up for the sale in the arena. You will be given a numbered card for bidding, and you will be asked where you want your purchase slaughtered and which butcher you want to process the meat.

When you bid on all animals, except rabbits and poultry, you are bidding by the pound, live weight. For meat rabbits and poultry, you bid by the animal or by the pen.

OK, I’m the High Bidder now what?

You will be billed by the Sale Committee. The processing costs are separate from your purchase at the auction.

On Sunday after the sale, all the market animals are shipped to area processors. After this, you will be contacted by the processor to complete a cut sheet which details the way you would like the meat to be cut. You may make other arrangements related to processing with the processor at this time. We are very thankful for those processors who work their very busy schedules to allow for the auction animals.

Buyer’s Options

If you want the whole animal

You, as the buyer, are responsible for the costs of purchasing and processing your animal; and if you don’t want to be billed, you may pay for your purchase immediately after the sale.

If your freezer isn’t that big

If you want to share the meat, you can purchase meat as a group, where the costs are shared among several buyers. Some ideas for partners are family, friends, employees, or other members of social organizations. Meat purchased by your company or organization makes and excellent customer thank you too!

You can resell your purchase

You may sign your purchase back to the 4-H and committee for resale. Resale animals will be resold during the auction. The proceeds of the resale will be used to maintain and repair the fair facility, purchase equipment for the livestock program, and educational materials for use by the 4-H clubs for year round programming. 

Tax deductible purchase

You may purchase an animal as a goodwill gift or as a donation to a charity.

Anonymous purchases

You may make your purchase anonymously by proxy buyer.

Price Bumps

If you are not buying an animal, but are interested in helping out, you may ‘bump’ an animal’s sale price by adding a fixed dollar amount to the sale price (for example, $25), or by adding money per pound to the sale price (for example $0.25 per pound). Contact the 4-H office at 585-798-4265 for information on this.

Want to buy, but can’t attend the sale?

A proxy buyer can help you. Work with your 4-H youth for information and they will arrange bidding in your name. 

4-H youth who participate in the auction are required to meet a variety of educational requirements through the year including meetings on marketing, nutrition, and showmanship clinics.

4-H youth also sign a quality assurance pledge which assures they provide a consistent, high quality of care for the project animal in the auction and all animals they will be raising.

Please join us at the auction preview for refreshments from 6:30-7:00 before the sale. Sales committee members and other volunteers will be available to assist you with questions about the bidding process.

2019 Average Sale Prices

Beef           $1.36/lb

Rabbit        $162 per lot

Pork           $2.93/lb

Lamb         $2.00/lb

Goat           No Sales

Poultry       $162.00 per lot

Average Take-home Product

(based on available 2019 carcass data)

                  Avg. Live           Avg. Carcass           Avg. Product

Beef           1342 lbs.             786 lbs.                    387 lbs.

Rabbit          7.62lbs.

Pork             250 lbs.             196 lbs.                    106 lbs.   

Lamb           140 lbs.               86 lbs.                      40 lbs.

Goat            105 lbs.               67 lbs.                      32 lbs.

Last updated May 17, 2024