Livestock Payoff

SEBRING - Blaine Albritton kept walking his steer around in circles near Firemen's Field's midway Thursday. Blaine's steer, Billy Bob, seemed a bit anxious that morning, mooing and occasionally bucking as Blaine held to his lead rope.

But as Blaine got ready Thursday morning to show and auction Billy Bob at the Highlands County Fair, Blaine, 10, was also a bit uneasy parting with him. "It's going to be hard," he said of the coming auction.

Blaine considered Billy Bob to be "like my best friend" during the 8 months he raised him.

Blaine's dad, Myron, understood what Blaine was going through. That's not just because Myron is a fourth-generation cattleman by trade. The 37-year-old father showed his steer at the same fair 25 years ago.

"That's what you have to think about when you're raising a steer for this purpose," Myron said.

Myron said the fair now is a lot like the one where he showed his cattle as a kid. He also tried showing pigs, but he remembered having more fun with the steer.

Blaine said he had plenty of fun playing with and bathing Billy Bob the past 8 months.

"It's like being someone's friend," the 10-year-old said.

For some of the other young people at the auction, the experience may have been more of a headache.

"It would have been a lot harder if I had a nice pig" Megan Stein said about leaving her pig after raising her for 4 months. "She bites, she runs you over ... she's not very nice."

The 12-year-old Sebring Middle School student never dealt with farm animals before this pig, even though she had dogs, cats and rabbits in the past. She described it as messy but "a really good learning experience."

'Hope To At Least Break Even'

The money from cattle and hogs sold at Thursday evening's auction goes right to the sellers' pockets. That would be the kids and the teenagers themselves.

For several months of raising, barn building and then some letter writing to potential buyers, the kids end up selling the animals at well above market value. In years past, many of the kids said they were eagerly waiting to do anything with those profits, from saving it for college to putting down payments on their cars.

This year, the sellers are not as sparkly-eyed over the prospects.

Sara Sebring, 18, is a four-year veteran at these fairs and has raised both pigs and cattle for it. Asked if she expected a good return from her Angus cross, she only said, "I do somewhat, but feed prices have gone up somewhat."

She estimated that she spent $1,800 on feed alone for both cattle. The steer, Lulu, weighed about 1,270 pounds Thursday.

"I hope to at least break even and have some extra for college," Sebring said.

Paul Bohlen, 13, wasn't even going to guess what he would make off his heifer, Lulu.

"I have to pay my dad $500 (for expenses)," was all the Lake Placid Middle School student knew for sure on the financial end of it, though he added that the cattle start at about $1,000.

His mother Julie figured it would take next year for Bohlen to make any serious money, since this was the first time and they had to buy a lot of supplies to begin raising cattle.

Mark Bryan, the chairman of the Junior Livestock Committee that is overseeing the auction, said the current economy might have an effect on the amount the kids could end up earning this time around.

He would not say how much an average participant would make in this fair, but Thursday brought a record 91 hogs and about 70 out of 72 heifers and steer brought to the fair that have been auctioned.