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Auction brightens some exhibitors' futures

Photo

Photo by Kyle Bursaw

Sadie Stueck holds her reserve champion market wether in front of a crowd for auction, while Bob Johnson of Badger State Auction and Real Estate in Milton calls the auction.

JANESVILLE — Audrey Hurley was hoping to fetch a good price for her turkey Saturday at the Rock County 4-H Fair Fur & Feather Sale, but she never imagined she’d pull in $725.

“I couldn’t believe it,” said Hurley, 18, of the Magnolia 4-H Club. “I thought maybe (I’d get) $150.”

A family friend helped drive the bidding up, though Hurley didn’t know the person who ultimately won. She said she’s going to use the money to study nursing at UW-Rock County.

The annual fur and feather sale offers plenty of chances for the community to contribute to young people. Most of the young exhibitors say they will use the money for education, which encourages bidders to be generous.

Bidding on education

In fact, some of the buyers didn’t even want the animals they bid on. Many donated the animals to a fund that gives out scholarships for participants in poultry, goat and rabbit projects.

Once the high bidder donated his or her animal to the scholarship fund, the animal was auctioned off again. The high bid from the first round went to the exhibitor, and the high bid from the second round went to the fund.

Hurley won a $500 scholarship this year in the poultry category, meaning she walked away with $1,225 Saturday for college.

“It’ll be a huge help,” she said.

Miscommunications

Laurie Drew, Magnolia Township, came to the auction to support a neighbor who was selling a turkey, but she almost went home with a chicken.

Drew raised a brightly colored paper to fan her face during the auction, then quickly lowered it when an auctioneer thought she was bidding on the chicken.

There’s a reason her husband usually does the bidding, she said sheepishly.

Family tradition

Stewart Graves, 9, struggled to keep his arms around his 35-pound Pekin duck during his first fur and feather sale.

“Looks like that duck outweighs that young man,” auctioneer Bob Johnson said of the La Prairie 4-H member.

But raising poultry is in Stewart’s blood. His grandfather, Don Lux, raised 10 children who showed poultry at the fair, said Stewart’s mother, Lona Lux-Graves.

Earlier in the week, Stewart won grand champion call duck, an award named after his late grandfather.

“Poultry just became part of the Lux family tradition,” Lona said.

Rabbit stew

Shylo Wehler, 15, was a little afraid she was going to be stuck selling four rabbits.

She already was selling one rabbit for a friend when another friend, 14-year-old Rose Reible, asked her to watch her pen of rabbits for a few minutes.

Rose, a member of Bradford 4-H, returned just before her turn to sell the animals.

She’s been raising rabbits for five years now, she said. She keeps the rabbits that do well and sells the ones that don’t, she said.

“Some people keep them as pets, and other people eat them,” she said nonchalantly.

Rose doesn’t mind if people eat her rabbits “as long as they don’t butcher them at my house,” she said.