Five animals set Medina County Fair records

MEDINA, Ohio – Necks craned. Smiles in the sale ring grew wider. At the last burst of bids, enthusiastic applause broke out.

In the early morning of Aug. 2, Day Two of the junior fair market livestock sale began with a record broken.

Kalynn Rininger’s grand champion meat goat, weighing 70 pounds, started the sale. In a record-setting bidding frenzy that lasted more than five minutes, Ron Pfaff Electric and Prime Polymers Inc. gave the winning bid of $17.25 a pound, topping the previous record set in 1996 of $12.50 a pound.

Records also fell in the rabbit and poultry sale Aug. 1.

Steingrass Mechanical bought both the grand champion goose and broiler, breaking two records.

It bought Emily Heckler’s grand champion goose for $2,000, shattering the 2000 mark of $1,000.

Returning to the buyer’s circle for the grand champion broiler, shown by Keri Pavlick, Steingrass Mechanical also broke the 1996 record of $850 with a bid of $1,000.

The second phase of the sale began at 9:30 a.m. Aug. 2 with the meat goats and finished out with the swine, beginning at about 3 p.m. It followed the sale of junior fair rabbits and poultry Aug. 1 at 6 p.m.

Meat, dairy goats. Following the record-setting beginning, the 75-pound reserve champion meat goat, exhibited by Emily King, sold to Lodi Lumber for $3.75 a pound.

Marcella Hamilton sold her 86-pound grand champion dairy goat for $3.50 a pound to Doors and More. Spencer Feed and Supply bought Alison Ungar’s 88-pound reserve champion for $3 a pound.

Lambs. No stranger to the ring, Matthew Sulzener finished out his last year and continued the Sulzener family winning streak with this year’s grand champion market lamb honors. Sulzener sold his 122-pound lamb to Whitehead Meats for $5 a pound, well below the $9 mark from last year’s sale.

The 122-pound reserve champion, raised by Cassie Gleisner, sold for $3.25 a pound to Nova Farmers Supply Inc.

Michelle Joyce sold her 62-pound grand champion carcass lamb to Remington Farms for $8 a pound, up from last year’s $5 bid. The 65-pound reserve champion carcass, raised by Jacob Boyert, went to Dusek Farms for $5.75 a pound.

Steers. The Gulliford family continued its winning ways as, for the second consecutive year, Kate Gulliford raised the grand champion steer. At 1,370 pounds, it sold to Laria Chevrolet Buick and Tramonte Distributors for $3 a pound.

Simmons Bros. Construction bought Megan Indoe’s reserve champion steer, weighing 1,317 pounds, for $2 a pound.

The grand champion beef carcass honors went to Jenna Simmons, who sold her 811-pound carcass for $3.50 a pound to Todd Smith. Chris Holstein’s reserve champion carcass, weighing 607 pounds, sold to Locust Run Farm for $2.10 a pound.

Dairy steers, feeder calves. Kristal Migchelbrink’s 1,389-pound grand champion dairy steer sold for $1 a pound, below last year’s bid of $2.85, to Dr. Tom Naumoff and Dr. Joe Blackburn.

Gene Reusch Excavating and Prime Polymers Inc. paid $1.17 for the 1,486-pound reserve champion, raised by Shanna Keller.

In the feeder calf divisions, winners included: grand champion starter calf, Katie Williams; reserve, Caitlin Disbrow; grand champion light feeder, Krystal Coffman; reserve, April Burmeister; grand champion heavy feeder, Nicholas Coffman; reserve, Jon Gerspacher.

Small animals, poultry. After the records set for the grand champion goose and broiler Aug. 1, things settled down. The reserve champion goose, shown by Daniel Kinney, brought $210 from Bob Toth Jr., below the bid of $250 last year.

Jimmy Foecking’s reserve champion broiler sold to Valley Tack Shop for $550, well above last year’s $225 mark.

Remington Farms paid $650 for Jacob Mohoric’s grand champion duck, topping the $300 mark set last year. Returning with repeat honors, Daniel Sotak sold his reserve champion duck to Wolff Bros. Supply for $375.

Setting a new record, Bowers and Corrigan Law Offices bought Nate Lewis’ grand champion turkey for $1,450. The reserve champion turkey, exhibited by Tim Zacharias, sold for $650 to J and P Swingle Mechanical, just above the last year’s bid of $600.

Jessica Aungst sold her pen of grand champion meat rabbits to State Rep. Charles Calvert for $800, eliminating the record $775 set in 2001. The reserve champion pen, exhibited by Amelia Dull, sold to State Rep. Bob Gibbs for $400, up from last year’s bid of $300.

Hogs. Swine rounded out the sale Aug. 2 with Megan Indoe’s 269-pound grand champion market hog going for $7.25 a pound to Pallotta Ford, well above last year’s mark of $3 a pound. At 242 pounds, the reserve champion, exhibited by Matthew Wuensch, sold to Capron Construction for $4.25 a pound, up from last year’s bid of $2.

Westfield Insurance paid $3 a pound for Thomas Rice’s 156-pound grand champion hog carcass. Tyler Phillips sold his reserve carcass, weighing 144 pounds, to Dusek Farms for $3.20 a pound.

To benefit the junior fair dairy exhibitors, the sale included the auction of three baskets. In honor of Ohio’s bicentennial, one basket included an Ohio flag, a United States flag and a book of the Ohio bicentennial barns signed by the artist of the bicentennial logo.

The sale brought in $236,545, down from last year’s totals of over $240,000.