Livestock auction a tradition
Emma Mooney stands with her Grand Heavyweight Champion sheep, Rocket, as people bid on him during the livestock auction Thursday night. Greene County Fair Queen Brittany Bonnema claps in the background during the bidding.
A group of 4-H participants stand at the edge of the arena and clap during the bidding process for their fellow 4-H members.
A cow smiles for a picture this week at the Greene County Fair.
The stands were filled during the livestock auction Thursday as people bid on sheep and steer.
Emma Mooney guides her Grand Heavyweight Champion sheep, Rocket, around the livestock arena.
WAYNESBURG – Youths in the 4-H program have been working for months getting their sheep and steers ready for this week’s Greene County Fair competitions and the livestock auction Thursday night.
The better quality animal, the higher price people were willing to pay per pound during the sale.
Emma Mooney, 10, of Waynesburg, a second-year member of the 4-H program, went into the auction nervous even though her sheep, Rocket, was named Grand Heavyweight Champion Wednesday. She had a family legacy to live up to.
Her great-grandfather, Robert Mooney Sr., helped to get the 4-H program started in Greene County in the 1960s, according to Emma’s father, Matt Mooney. Her great-aunt, Carol Adamson Mooney, also showed the first Grand Champion within the sheep competition, and she was present at Thursday night’s auction as her great-niece presented her sheep to the packed stands.
As the fair grew closer, Emma said she spent three to four hours with Rocket each day, making sure he was ready for the competition and the fair.
“We have been through a lot together,” Emma said. “He’s basically the best lamb I have ever had.”
Emma and Rocket were the first to enter the auction arena. As she stood there, holding Rockets neck high to show off his body behind the two trophies he had won the day before, Emma could do nothing but smile.
“I was hoping to get a lot of money and I did,” Emma exclaimed.
Hoy’s Construction Co. bought Rocket, a 139-pound sheep, paying $46 per pound.
Emma and her family never expected to receive that much.
“It is always nice to see that support for the program,” Matt Mooney said.
Emma said she plans to put the money into a savings account for college. She wants to attend West Virginia University, although she’s still not sure yet what she wants to study.
Other participants were able to sell their sheep and steers for even higher prices during the auction.
The Grand Champion steer owned by Julie Policz weighed 1,400 pounds and was sold to Lou Dayich at $6.50 per pound.
Dayich, the district magistrate in Waynesburg, said the livestock auctions stand as a great tradition in the county. They take him back to when he was a child and he would see companies buy the prize steers and sheep and place them in pens outside the businesses to show them off.
“It’s very rewarding to give back to the young people who have worked so hard,” Dayich said.
Sixty-seven lambs and 46 steers were sold during Thursday night’s auction.
Go to www.observer-reporter.com to find the Greene County Fair competition results.