Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Josephine Petersen

The Freeborn County 4-H supports youth and the importance of learning while working hard. The 4-H Livestock Auction that was held Saturday at the Freeborn County Fair is the perfect example of youth using their independence and skills to show what they’ve learned.

About 181 kids took part in the 4-H Livestock Auction this year, showing cattle, sheep, goats, pigs, poultry and rabbits. The auction’s purpose is to help encourage market livestock production among local 4-H clubs and help the youth learn important skills.

The animals shown don’t actually get sold to the highest bidder, as it’s more like a sponsorship for 4-H than an auction. A majority of the money raised goes to the youth, and the rest is to support and fund the 4-H, while the animals stay with the 4-H’ers.

Though the livestock auction isn’t a simple walk in and walk out, the 4-H’ers need to spend hours preparing their livestock the day of so everything is ready and set for the auction. But despite all the work and effort put in, 4-H’ers get to see their hard work pay off by the end.

The process of the 4-H Livestock Auction starts with getting the animals ready.

“When you start the auction, you gotta wash your cow, blow them out. Make them look pretty. Kind of like doing your hair in the morning,” said Andrew Petersen, who is in his second year showing cattle at the auctions.

For Alaina Bidne, who is in her 12th year of 4-H, it is mostly the same.

“In the morning it’s making sure they’re all set up and clean and just ready to go, look presentable,” she said. “Then it’s just waiting for your turn, waiting in line. Then once you go into the auction, they call your name. You set them up and present them.”

Once the animals are washed and brought out to the auction, it’s standing and keeping the animal under control as people bid. There can also be a lot of issues that arise with the auction.

“They tend to have a personality on them,” Bidne said. “Stubbornness and attitudes can come along.”

Alongside animals being hard to handle, they can also be easily scared by all the noise. “Sometimes they don’t like the loud noises,” Petersen said. “There’s usually some problem.”

While there’s already a lot to do the day of the auction, there’s months worth of effort done beforehand. To prepare for the auction, 4-H’ers need to get their animal and prepare it for showing.

“We did a lot of walking to make sure that they are walking properly.” said Everett Schone, who did his first auction this year. “We have to make sure that they have good muscles in the back legs.”

Alongside training and working with the animals, they also need to be healthy and fit.

“Just taking care of them, for sheep it’s walking, kind of builds that muscle. Making sure they get the right ration of feed,” Bidne said.

With all the hard work paying off, all three kids plan to use the money earned to put either into savings, or spend towards the next year to show better animals with better supplies.