Summit County livestock sale records fall

TALLMADGE, Ohio – Jenny Blatt was in hog heaven Saturday night.
The Summit County youth raised the 223-pound grand champion market hog that earned a record bid of $8.75 a pound, topping the old mark of $8.25 a pound set just last year.
Leppo Equipment was the final bidder in the record pace.
Alisa Shenigo won a triple crown, of sorts, at this year’s fair, showing the reserve champion hog and the grand and reserve champion lambs.
Shenigo Custom Concrete bought her 232-pound reserve champion hog for $5 a pound, a hefty bid but shy of the $6 record set last year.
Ohio Polymer Packaging paid $5 a pound for Alisa’s 126-pound grand champion lamb, and Leppo Equipment paid $3.40 a pound for her 123-pound reserve champion lamb.
The 27 market hogs averaged $1.96 a pound with the champions; $1.57 a pound, without.
The 11 lambs averaged $2.85 a pound, including champions; $2.54 a pound, without champions.
Small animals. The small animals were hot at the Summit County Fair market livestock sale, with both the grand and reserve champion pens of chickens setting new records.
Park Farms, who donates the chicks for the junior fair chicken projects in most northeastern Ohio counties, continued their support of the region’s youth by setting a new grand champion record of $455 for Andy Kubera’s grand champion pen of chickens.
Drs. Mary and Mike Kubera set a new record of $475 for the reserve champion pen, raised by Sarah Weiss.
The 28 pens averaged $105/pen including the champion prices; $77.69/pen, without champions.
Adam Hendrickson won a double dose in the champion’s circle, showing both the grand champion and reserve champion pens of meat rabbits. Alltel paid $225 for his grand champion pen and the Akron Rabbit Club paid $200 for the reserve champion pen.
The five pens averaged $177/pen including the champions; $153/pen, without.
Sibling rivalry. Family blood and loyalty go only so far when you’re competing in the show ring, as once again the brother-sister team of Mandy and Jon Birney found themselves going head to head in a market livestock battle.
Last year, the pair sparred in the market hog competition, with Mandy grabbing the grand champion honors and Jon showing the reserve champion.
This year, the results came out the same way in the market steer competition. Mandy Birney’s 1,254-pound steer – an unusual all white purebred Shorthorn steer – was named grand champion. Jon’s 1,293-pound entry earned reserve champion honors.
Drs. Mary and Mike Kubera paid $1.85 a pound for Mandy’s grand champion steer. The law offices of Emershaw, Mushkat & Schneier paid $1.65 a pound for Jon’s reserve champion steer.
The 21 steers averaged $1.29 a pound with the champions; $1.24 a pound, without.
Auctioneer Jonathan Polcen volunteered his services for the sale, which totaled $52,105.15.