By: Lindsey Rowland
news@wbcowqel.com
The end of the Crawford County Fair always brings around a group of solid animals to be sold, and on Friday evening, the best of the best took to the arena for the annual Sale of Champions.
All of the grand and reserve champions that won their titles throughout the week were brought before a crowd and auctioned off to local businesses and community members alike. 51 slots were listed in the program and included not just animals, but gallons of milk and alpaca products as well.
Many great bids went to multiple different bidders, but some went above and beyond the amount that had ever been paid before, breaking the auction records. This year, record breakers included Lyndie Williams with her Reserve Champion Goat, purchased for 2200 dollars purchased by Poet Biorefining, Sunrise Cooperative, Schiefer Bins, Morill, Pioneer Seed (Greg Schifer), Courtney Britt’s Grand Champion Meat Pen Rabbit was bought for 2,000 dollars by Scott Nichols of McDonald’s and Nicole Fryer’s Grand Champion Fryer Rabbit was bought for 950 dollars by United Bank and Schiefer Insurance. The record for the Grand Champion Lamb was broken when Emily Rudd sold hers for 4,000 dollars to First Federal, Peeples Savings and Loan, First Federal of Bucyrus, WBCO/WQEL Radio, Schiefer Bins, United Bank, Shawn Leuthold, and Wellman’s Seeds and Emma Studer shattered the record for her Grand Champion in Poultry when hers sold for 1450 dollars to the Chatfield Volunteer Firefighters and the Chatfield Area Merchants. Finally, Lori Millenbaugh sold her Grand Champion Beef Feeder for 5500 dollars to First Federal Community Bank, F and F Farms, John Deere, Pritchard Insurance, Peeples Savings and Loan, Ag Credit Union, JD Equipment, and Wyandot Tractor, securing a new record in her name.
The results overall were as follows:
Gallon of Mile- $4900
Dalton Hoover, Grand Champion Dairy Feeder-$1400
Michelle Flick, Reserve Champion Dairy Feeder-$1250
Alana Burkhart, Grand Champion Goat-$1900
Lyndie Williams, Reserve Champion Goat-$2200
Jennifer Siegel, Grand Champion Market Hog-$3000
Kelsie Williams, Reserve Champion Market Hog-$2250
Courtney Britt, Grand Champion Meat Pen Rabbit-$2000
Nicole Flock, Grand Champion Fryer Rabbit-$950
Emily Rudd, Grand Champion Lamb-$3500
Alan Leonhardt, Reserve Champion Lamb-$3500
Emma Studer, Grand Champion Poultry-$1450
Colton Guinther, Reserve Champion Poultry-$800
Alpaca Gift Basket-$3750
Jessica Millenbaugh, Grand Champion Market Steer-$j7000
Adam Widman, Reserve Champion Market Steer-$3100
Lori Millenbaugh, Grand Champion Beef Feeder-$5500
Lane Sautter, Reserve Champion Beef Feeder-$1200
Lyndie and Kelsie Williams are sisters who sold their award winning goat and market hog at the sale, respectively. For both girls, the sale was an exciting and rewarding time.
“It’s awesome because you’ve finished your project and you’ve completed it and you’ve worked hard for it so it’s just a great feeling,” Kelsie said.
Lyndie agreed, saying, “Whatever happens, happens. The sale is exciting because you get to see how much money the project ended up worth and it’s just…exciting!”
The rest of the livestock will be sold beginning Saturday morning at nine.