4-H animal auction, with some baked goods and fiber, sets new record high

Total sales top $64K – ‘Those kids are our future’

Photos by Tom Rivers

KNOWLESVILLE – Haylee Wright of Lyndonville smiles holding her reserve champion rabbit she named “Yum.” The rabbit sold for $400 at the 4-H animal meat auction on Saturday.

The total sales for the animals, baked goods and fiber came to $64,128, a new record, and well above the typical $20,000 to $28,000 for the sale.

This auction included more animals and more kids, said Chrissy Beach, a parent volunteer who helps with the event. She also said the buyers were very generous in wanting to support the local 4-Hers.

Jayne Bannister and Zack Welker served as the ringmen at the auction, scanning the crowd for bids. Here they could see the bidding cards held high for the grand champion rabbit raised by Hugh Gabalski of Byron. Herm Webber of HLW Acres, a poultry processing business sin Attica, paid $525 for the rabbit.

Gabalski was pleased with the prices for the rabbits he had at the auction – about double what he usually would get.

Gabalski, 17, said he reached out to potential buyers, including for two lambs he had in the auction.

He was able to get some new bidders at the auction, but he said Webber and David Piedmonte of Holley have been long-time supporters for him.

“I trust them and I’ve built a relationship with them,” Gabalski said.

Webber said he goes to 13 auctions at county fairs to support the 4-Hers. He bought rabbits, a turkey and even plates of cookies, paying $500 for one plate of cookies to support the 4-H program.

“The kids are our future,” he said. “They work hard, and they should be rewarded. If we don’t have them in agriculture, we won’t have food produced in our country. We’ll have to rely on someone else.”

A bidder raises his arm for a pen of three grand champion rabbits raised by Hugh Gabalski. David Piedmonte paid $425 for the trio.

Matthew Bloom, 14, of Albion leads a steer into the show ring. The 1,320-pound animal sold for $6.50 a pound or $8,580, the biggest bid of the night. Zack Welker is the ringman at right and Todd Jantzi of Bontrager is the auctioneer in back. Jantzi donated his services for the auction.

Western New York Energy paid the big bucks for the animal. WNY Energy also bought two pigs and spent over $13,000 total.

The animals in the auction sold well above the market prices, which were at $1.80 a pound for beef, $1.60 a pound for lambs and 55 cents for pigs.

Tim Winters, CEO of WNY Energy, is happy after being the winning bidder. The company was the biggest spender for a steer and two pigs.

Winters said the company wants to support local 4-Hers and encourage them to be a part of agriculture.

Natalie Miller, 10, of Lyndonville shows the champion pig that sold for $14 a pound to WNY Energy, for $3,850 for the 275-pounder. That was the biggest bid for the 19 pigs in the auction. Of those, 16 sold for at least $1,000, well above the market price.

Carissa Klossner, 16, of Holley holds an alpaca rug she made for the auction. Vendetti Farms paid $130 for the rug. Olivia Streicher of Chaffee, in back, also made a yarn purse and alpaca dryer balls. This is the first time the auction included fiber products made by 4-Hers.

Lea Donofrio of Bergen, the 4-H Fair queen, stands with a butcher box of pork donated by her family’s farm, Stix ‘n’ Stonz.

David Welker, 6, of Medina holds a plate of cookies. The sale of baked goods went to the 4-H program. There were three plates of cookies in the auction and two sold for $500 each and the other for $150.

Anna Mathes, representing Apex Clean Energy, was the winning bidder for one plate of cookies for $500. Apex also bought two pigs.