After 10 years and thousands of hours of 4-H work, Jordan Riley, 19, stood on deck holding one of his reserve champion heavy weight broilers waiting to go before the Allen County 4-H Livestock Auction for the last time.
Monday’s auction marked the end of the 2010 Allen County Fair. Participants were allowed to auction one animal per species with a limit of two species each. Bidders could choose to keep their purchases, consign the animal to the market or donate it to the local food bank.
Riley stroked his bird as the auctioneer solicited bids on the winning pair of reserve grand commercial and championship heavy weight broilers. Grand champion Rachel Gallmeyer, 16, looked out as audience members raised their signs to indicate a bid. Topping out at $300, the young champion – and Riley’s girlfriend – stepped to the side.
On average, a pair of broilers will go for about $250, so the $300 win for the grand champion was typical. As the runner-up, it didn’t seem likely that Riley would break much higher.
And then the bidding started.
Within moments, he had already surpassed Gallmeyer as the auctioneer fielded bids at $500. And then it shot directly to $700. Moments later, bids broke $1,000.
“I’m almost to the record,” Riley thought as he watched with excitement as the bidding continued. But a record wasn’t in his cards. The signal cards came to a rest after a bid of $1,150.
All for two chickens.
All for college
Riley’s family has been competing in 4-H for 20 years. As the youngest, he watched his four older siblings show animals and raise money for their college bills. A recent graduate of Heritage High School, he’ll be leaving soon to attend Ohio Tech for diesel engineering.
“We’ve put four others through college doing this,” said his father, Mark.
The $1,150 bid combined with $2,500 that his Champion Brown Swiss Steer went for will be added to the fund full of auction winnings from years past.
Riley’s 10 years with 4-H and academic interests didn’t go unacknowledged by the crowd. As he stood before the audience auctioning off Wheat, his 1,606-pound steer, the auctioneer encouraged the crowd to support the young man.
“Ten-year-member-here-help-him-out-here-send-him-to-college,” the auctioneer whirled off in a single breath.
Susie Hoot has been buying livestock from the Riley family for six years, and placed the winning bid on Wheat.
“When we make up our mind to buy from a particular person, we bid until we get there,” she said. “He’s using the money for education. You can’t beat that.”
The family owns 700 to 800 acres, and keeps some of the animals they buy. Those that they can’t keep, they donate as part of the auction’s partnership with the Community Harvest Food Bank. Bidders can tell the auction committee that they want the cattle, pigs, sheep and goats they’ve purchased to be donated to Farmers and Hunters Feeding the Hungry. The butchering fees will be paid and the meat donated to the food bank.
4-H benefits
Riley and Gallmeyer talked with family and friends as the auction continued inside the barn.
“She keeps rubbing the champion banner in his face, now he can rub the check in her face,” Riley’s dad joked.
“It’s all in good fun,” Riley added.
The two met through 4-H and helped each other prepare and take care of the livestock. They admit to having a bit of a good-natured rivalry. Gallmeyer still has a couple years of competition left as Riley closes out this chapter and prepares to move on to the next.
“It’ll definitely be weird for the first few years,” he said “But then it’s just a different style of life.”
He hopes to come back next year and help Gallmeyer prepare, but isn’t sure how that will fit in with his college program that runs Monday through Thursday all year-round.
Riley said he believes his time with 4-H will help prepare him for college.
“You really need to be able to be responsible and not procrastinate so much,” he said. “It’s a lot of responsibility.”
