Seeking Payday, Youths Court Livestock Buyers at Crawford County Fair

Adrianna Webster sits with her grand champion market hog at the Crawford County Fair on Aug. 25, 2023, in Meadville, Pa.

MEADVILLE, Pa. — With the minutes ticking down before the bidding began, Adrianna Webster was perched in the pig barn waiting for the fish to bite.

In this case, the fish were prospective buyers for the Crawford County Fair’s Aug. 25 youth livestock sale.

As the owner of the grand champion market hog, Adrianna, who is 15, had one of the most appealing lots in the sale. After the scholarship hog opened the sale, her animal would be the first to cross the auction block.

“She’s probably one of my more special ones than any of my other pigs,” Adrianna said.

But with judging inherently unpredictable, Adrianna couldn’t count on taking grand champion. So she had done her legwork before the fair, sending 15 letters to prospective buyers asking them to vie for her pig.

Youth livestock sale bidders, many of them local businesses, pay premium prices to support the next generation and get publicity. Adrianna targets recent bidders and other people she knows.

For a personal touch, Adrianna and her siblings usually hand-deliver letters to prospective buyers, watching them open the letters and getting their reaction on the spot.

“This year we were a little late, so we had to mail them,” Adrianna said.

Brianna Whaley sits with her market hog at the Crawford County Fair on Aug. 25, 2023, in Meadville, Pa.

Brianna Whaley, 18, also mailed letters to 15 prospective buyers, and she had confirmation that five would be attending the sale. She brought extra copies to the fair because some buyers won’t bid without a hard copy in front of them.

Whaley’s buyer letter was two-thirds of a page of text, with a photo of her and her pig, Wilbur.

In conversation with prospects at her pig’s stall, Whaley tried to find out what the buyer is looking for and explain how her pig is the best choice to meet those desires. She also mentioned some of her friends’ animals to give the buyers options.

The fun part, she said, could be seeing if buyers brought to the sale by other exhibitors would also bid on her animal.

“I like that they're able to come in and look at all of the animals and get to talk with the owners, because then it kind of gives you an idea on, how is this animal raised? How will the meat be, based on how it’s raised?” Whaley said.

Whaley felt confident that she had a quality animal to sell. Wilbur was in the optimal weight range for a Berkshire-Blue Butt cross, with a straight back and strong legs.

Landen Klink leads his hog down the chute into the ring during the Crawford County Fair youth livestock sale on Aug. 25, 2023, in Meadville, Pa.

“He has enough meat and muscle, as well as a little bit of fat, to all make a good, delicious taste,” Whaley said.

Whaley sold a pig at the fair for the first time this year. In past years she focused on poultry, but live birds were disallowed for the second straight year because of the threat of avian influenza. So it was time to find another fair project.

She found controlling a larger animal more challenging than with poultry.

“Pigs, you go and try to grab them, they will run off with you being dragged behind them,” Whaley said.

Still, the transition has opened up a new enterprise. Whaley is breeding a pig, and her sale pig turned out to be a good companion.

“When he's calm like this, I can literally lay on top of him and we could just cuddle and fall asleep,” she said.

Whaley is heading to Thiel College and eventually plans to become a large-animal veterinarian.

Kenley McElhaney sits with her reserve champion market hog at the Crawford County Fair on Aug. 25, 2023, in Meadville, Pa.

Kenley McElhaney, 11, has been showing for four years and was in the sale of champions for the first time.

Kenley bought her pig for $800 from a local breeder. She also checked out a breeder in Ohio and searched online for pigs as far away as Wisconsin.

“You can find them on Facebook, or if you just look up ‘pigs for sale,’ they have pretty good ones,” she said.

Kenley said her show strengths including using the whip, keeping the pig’s head up, and maintaining control over the pig.

Her favorite part of showing is forming a bond with the pigs. Her reserve champion, Jet, was kind and playful, never rough.

That connection can make it hard to sell the pig.

“At the end I usually cry sometimes, but I know that this is what I planned to happen,” Kenley said.

Part of Kenley’s pitch to prospective buyers is using her earnings responsibly. She spends $100 however she wants, but she saves the rest for college.

“Hopefully I sell him for a lot of money this year so I can gain profit instead of have debt,” Kenley said before the show.

She earned $2,475, making a tidy profit on her pig.

Auctioneer Kevin Wheeler takes bids at Crawford County Fair's youth livestock sale on Aug. 25, 2023, in Meadville, Pa.

Following are the results of the sale of champions.

Grand champion swine: Adrianna Webster, $12 per pound, 248 pounds, purchased by Kanect Recycling, Country Corner Inn and Country Corner Stables

Reserve champion swine: Kenley McElhaney, $9 per pound, 275 pounds, purchased by Flodraulic Group

Grand champion beef: Gavin Palmer, $8 per pound, 1,312 pounds, purchased by Kanect Recycling, Country Corner Inn and Country Corner Stables

Reserve champion beef: Gavin Patterson, $4.50 per pound, 1,303 pounds, purchased by Greenhill Farms Equipment Inc.

Grand champion sheep: Cole Kuhn, $20 per pound, 143 pounds, purchased by Village Auto

Reserve champion sheep: Jase Shelatz, $20 per pound, 133 pounds, purchased by Kanect Recycling, Country Corner Inn and Country Corner Stables

Grand champion goat: Melissa Mattocks, $70 per pound (sale record), 75 pounds, purchased by Friends of the Mattocks Family

Reserve champion goat: Owen Webster, $5 per pound, 83 pounds, purchased by Big G Portable Toilets and Gary Sales & Service

The scholarship hog brought $5,650 in donations from Bayshore Homes Inc., C. Sherman Allen Auctioneer and Associates, Klink Girls Cattle, Mercer County State Bank, Nicolls & Auctions, Syst-A-Matic Tool, Village Auto, Webster Automotive, Dr. Paul Shok, R. Klink Custom Furniture and Cabinets, Beck's Heating and Air Conditioning, Commissioner Eric Henry, Rose Family, Venango Valley and John L. Peck.

This fair is a stop on Lancaster Farming’s Western PA Fair Road Trip. The trip covers the Williamsburg Community Farm Show, Somerset County Fair, Westmoreland Fair, Hookstown Fair and Crawford County Fair.

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Phil Gruber is the news editor at Lancaster Farming. He can be reached at 717-721-4427 or [email protected]. Follow him @PhilLancFarming on Twitter.