Bidding for fair winners means bidding farewell to farm friends

TURLOCK, Calif. — Emily Kosky said her final goodbye Saturday morning, stroking the neck of her Boer goat as it gobbled up a breakfast of protein-fortified pellets and alfalfa.

"This is one of the most difficult days for me. He is heading to auction and I know he's probably going to end up on someone's table," said Kosky, a member of Turlock Hoof N Horns 4-H. "I've spent a lot of time with Hobby, but I know that I can't get too attached."

While Hobby is destined to produce a fine assortment of edible treats, including juicy loin chops and thick chunks of meat for stew, the 95-pound wether (farm slang for being neutered) is going out a winner.

He was judged the supreme champion goat at this year's Stanislaus County, Calif., Fair, a feat that drew a steady line of admirers to his pen before the start of the livestock auction.

It was a morning of mixed emotions for Kosky, as well as hundreds of other FFA and 4-H members who brought animals to the fair.

"It's exciting to have the supreme champion, it's the first time I've done that," the Hickman seventh-grader said. "I've got other goats at home, but Hobby has become a friend."

There were plenty of sentimental farewells as kids from 8 years old to 20 took their animals to the auction ring to be sold.

It's an annual rite of summer, showing animals at the fair and selling them, finalizing a business transaction.

"You have to remember it's a business," said Austin Day, a Pitman FFA member whose crossbred steer was the fair's supreme grand champion. "I think everyone out here gets attached to their animal, but this also is about teaching us how to make good decisions."

The students keep financial records, accounting for feed and other expenses, but few of these students will earn a sizable profit for the months of work they have invested.

The champions are typically the exception to that rule.

Modesto, Calif., FFA member Brad Mendes, for example, got $20 a pound for his 274-pound supreme champion hog. He will use that $5,480 for college and perhaps to buy a few hogs.

"I think the judges saw that he didn't have any holes. He met or exceeded the standard in every area," said Mendes, who graduated Modesto High in 2008 but has spent this last year serving as an FFA state officer. "He's not too heavy, so isn't carrying his stomach low, yet he has good weight."

Modesto dentist Bruce Valentine wasn't analyzing the structure of the hindquarters or color when he bid on Mendes' prize porker — he was making an investment.