Meating demand

The global pandemic may have had plenty of downsides, but there was an unexpected upside for the kids who raised animals to sell at this year’s county fair. The livestock sale saw higher average sale numbers and a net total sale that was up from years past, says 4-H Educator Sara Fleenor.

“It was a really high sale,” she says. The net total came in at $333,000, which is an increase of $60,500 from last year’s net total of $272,500.

Buyers at the county livestock sale are traditionally generous, but were even more so this year.

“We attribute some of it to people wanting to support kids in a hard year,” Fleenor says.

Purchasing animals at fair was also beneficial to the winning bidders, however.

“We advertised heavily that we had spots reserved at the local slaughter facilities for these animals so there was not a wait time to get the animals processed,” she says.

With the meat industry experiencing difficulties, some butcher shops have slaughter dates all the way into 2021 for animals, she explains.

“This was a way to get fresh, locally grown meat, quickly,” she says.

Crook County’s wasn’t the only fair to see an unusually high return on its livestock sale, according to University of Wyoming Extension. Albany, Park, Teton and Washakie all reported record sales.