Weeks have passed from the 2024 Wayne County Fair. The hustle and bustle has calmed down on the fairgrounds now.
Families have unpacked and cleaned their tack boxes, cleaned out their campers, vehicles and trailers from all the fair supplies that were needed to take care of their animals. The OSU Extension staff has unpacked and are collecting the 4-H/FFA exhibitor thank-you cards for the buyers of their projects. We require our exhibitors to write their animal buyers and those businesses that choose to add additional money onto an exhibitor auction check a card to receive their auction checks that will soon be on the way.
Wayne County is blessed with the business and individual families that come out and support our youth livestock and dairy exhibitors. In 2023, if you remember, we were blown away with the support with an auction total of $1,950,875. This is a combined total for money that was given for the purchase of animals and the total add-on monies.
The amount of money just for the purchase of the animals was $1,851,390 with the add-on monies given that was $99,485. That was a big deal, we were so overwhelmed with the big support of our county.
Now here we are in 2024. We did not beat the overall record from last year, but our add-on number grew. The grand total for 2024 Wayne County Fair is $1,773,284, that is a 9% total decrease from last year. The amount that was just for the purchase of the animals $1,593,525 with the add-on number that jumped to $115,359; the add-on total grew 14%.
Blown away from the support of our local county business and families, that come to the auctions on Wednesday and Thursday of the fair. The 2024 Dairy Products auction totals $64,400, which is another 18% jump from 2023 with a total of $52,650.
A big jump we are seeing are the add-ons to the exhibitor auction checks. This year we saw a 14% jump in add-on monies given to our exhibitors. What is an add-on you might ask.
Buyers have an option to put extra money (add-on) onto an exhibitor’s auction check. The buyer may not have been able to purchase the exhibitor’s animal, but they still wanted to support that exhibitor, so they have the option to fill out an add-on form and give an amount to the exhibitor.
We have many top buyers who are big supporters of our county: K & M Builders, Pallotta Ford Lincoln, Ashland Pump, Clothing Warehouse Everything Surplus, 3-D Meats, Last Arrow Manufacturing, Joyride Transport, Morris Oil Co., EM Construction, Kimble Recycling and Disposal, Wayne County Kiko’s Complete Auction Service, Santmyer Energy and S H Distributing.
Other big supporters of our 4-H exhibitors are Seaman Corporation, Catalpadale/Bristol/ Zido Valley Dairies, Wheeling & Lake Erie Railway, LEPPO, Gerber Feed Service, B & K Concrete Construction and Beaver Meats.
These are just a few of the top buyers, there are more than 793 registered buyers and buyer groups. Each year we post a list of the buyers who bought market projects on our website for the exhibitors to find their buyer and any add-ons to make out the thank-you cards.
We are so blessed here in Wayne County and are grateful for all the support for our 4-H/FFA youth exhibitors in our county.
Diane Johnson is program assistant, 4-H Youth Development, for Wayne County Extension. She can be reached at johnson.9505@osu.edu or 330-264-8722
This article was previously published in The Daily Record.