By Carrie Muehling
BLOOMINGTON – Businesses and individuals in the community came together to offer nearly $40,000 back to McLean County 4-Hers at a Youth Premium Livestock Sale during this year’s McLean County Fair.
The newly formed McLean County Youth Animal Agriculture Group – or MY AG for short – organized the sale to help livestock exhibitors recoup some of their project expenses. It’s been several years since the last livestock sale at the fair, but now is the right time to bring it back, according to Brian Davis, who serves as treasurer for the group.
“With premiums where they’re at and the shakiness of the state’s finances really cutting into those premiums, we wanted to find a way to help give back to these kids and make sure that not only are the livestock numbers sustained here, but we can even grow these projects,” said Davis, who also works at First Farmers State Bank in Bloomington.
Ardent Tillers 4-H member Joe Mohr recognized the value of the community support.
“Thank you so much for coming out and supporting us and buying our animals and their premiums. Thank you so much for selling us feed and supplies for our animals. We couldn’t do it without you,” said Mohr, 15, of Carlock.
The group hopes the sale will keep livestock projects going strong at the McLean County Fair for years to come. Taylor Davis, 17, of McLean, believes that will happen.
“All of the money to help pay back feed bills and stuff like that helps, so this will definitely be something to be able to keep being able to raise pigs in the next few years,” said Davis, who is a member of the Lucky 4’s 4-H Club.
The sale included 106 4-H members in its inaugural year. Each had the opportunity to sell one animal. Many of the sales were for premiums only, which allows the 4-Her to keep the animal to continue showing it or to sell it at a later time.
Carrie Muehling can be reached at carrie@wjbc.com.
