Summer's work pays off, in cash, at stock sale

MOSES LAKE - All summer long kids throughout Grant County are feeding and watering a fair animal, training and spending time with it. All that work is designed to prepare the animal and exhibitor for the week of the Grant County Fair.

And the payoff, literally, for that summer's work comes Friday morning at the stock sale.

One by one exhibitor and animal enter the arena, and one by one the animals are sold. The goal is enough money to pay the costs of raising the animal, with something left over.

The sale starts with the assumption that a meat packer will buy the animals, so they're valued at the market price, called the floor price. The sale is built on the assumption that buyers will pay more than the floor price.

Hunter James, who's in Wilson Creek 4-H, got $1.95 per pound for his steer, which weighed 1,309 pounds. That meant his gross return is - is - "wait one second," Hunter said, working the calculator on his phone. Okay, his gross return was "$2,557, and 55 cents. And his name is Sugar Boy." Sugar Boy was a good, as well as profitable, steer, James said, all things considered. "He's really sweet. And he doesn't kick that hard," he said.

James plans to put some of his money in the bank, saving for college, and reinvest some in his next steer.

Dylan Beck, of Moses Lake, is planning to reinvest too; his steer brought $1.90 per pound. (The floor price for steers was $1.14 per pound.)

Both 4-H and FFA have a loan program where students borrow the money for their project and pay it back from their earnings. Beck isn't one for a loan, he said, because the project can go bad and then he has to come up with the money from another source.

"I got $1.85 a pound" for her steer, Jazmyn Wentland, of Moses Lake, said. That was a pretty good return, so what does Jazmyn want to do with her money? "Well, I want to - I'm not sure," she said.

"Pay the feed bill," said her dad Jim, and Jazmyn agreed.

"Take your dad out to dinner," Dad suggested, and Jazmyn thought that might be OK too. But the majority of her money goes into a savings account, said her mom Tereesa Wentland.

Jazmyn and her brother Jade keep the checkbooks for their projects, Mom said. "They have to do the accounting part. What is profit and loss?"

"Most of it will go to feed, and what's left, I try to save as much as possible," Jade said. He's going to college someday, and there is the old farm truck out back that's his when he gets old enough, and it's going to take a lot of work and some money to fix it up.

Ethan Small, of Royal City, got $3.50 per pound for his pig, in his second year in competition. He shrugged when he was asked what he plans to do with his money. "Save it for school, mainly," his dad Warren said.

"I usually take 10 percent for school shopping," Shelby Daniel, of Othello, said. She puts money aside for dance class tuition and some for college. Some of the money is reinvested in the animal, she said. "I use it to buy some nice whips and shampoos for him," she said.

Buyers get satisfaction out of the process too, Sean Putnam, of George, said, who with his brother Dave bought two steers. "I was a 4-Her when I was growing up," Sean Putnam said. "I get the satisfaction of supporting the next generation."

Buyers have the option of sending the animal they purchase to the processor or keeping the meat.

The Putnam brothers keep their animals, and that's an additional benefit, for these buyers at least. "I get great-tasting meat. You can't get this meat anywhere."