Montcalm County 4-H Fair livestock auction sells 318 animals, raises total of $272,500

MONTCALM TOWNSHIP — Carly Dunham was overcome with emotion while standing inside the arena at Thursday’s Montcalm County 4-H Fair livestock auction.

The road to the fair was a long one for the 17-year-old Cedar Springs girl.

After having devoted much of her spare time in the past several months to raising a pig, she didn’t think she was going to be allowed to sell it at the auction due to the animal’s hefty 315-pound size.

“My pig was overweight, so we didn’t think it was going to make it in,” Dunham summarized.

Despite the circumstances, Dunham was determined not to give up as selling the pig meant more to her than just earning some extra spending cash.

“I had this idea that I wanted to give all the money that my pig raised to Dana Saboo and her family. (Saboo) is a family friend of ours who was just recently diagnosed with stage four stomach cancer. I just thought this could maybe help them out in some way,” Dunham said.

After explaining her story to fair administration and receiving permission to sell the pig, Dunham was surprised when the animal sold for $24 per pound.

That disbelief was followed by shock when the auctioneer announced the buyer wanted to give the pig back to Dunham so she could auction it off again.

With the pig selling for $19 per pound at its second run, Dunham wound up raising a total of $13,545 for the Saboo family.

“I’m happy. Everything feels pretty good right now,” Dunham said. “I had no idea that they were going to sell for that much money.”

Dunham’s pig was just one of 318 total animals that went up for sale during the livestock auction. In total, the event raised about $272,500.

“We’re really happy with how things went at the auction,” Montcalm County 4-H Coordinator Tarin Minkel said. “Especially with the heat today — it’s just so hot and we’ve gone through bottles and bottles of water. We’ve still had a lot of good community support, especially with some of the donations and bids that we’ve received.”

Emma Garlick, 14, of the Winfield Hustlers 4-H Club has been a part of the livestock auction for the past three years. However, this was Garlick’s first year selling a steer, which she felt was an entirely different experience.

“I’ve had my steer since he was a little calf last year,” she said. “We always had to clean his pen because he was messy and feed him a bale of hay every day — half in the morning and half a night. Taking care of him this winter really wasn’t fun, either. There was a big snowstorm at one point, and I had to go check on him even though it was just like a blizzard everywhere you looked.”

Kelsey Mankel, 15, of Gowen has been part of 4-H for a decade now, selling rabbits throughout.

“My dad breeds and raises Flemish Giant rabbits, so we have over 300 of them,” she said. “They’re really easy to manage and take care of. They’re also super sweet and fun to play with.”

On the other hand, Jocelyn Obermiller, 9, of Crystal, found herself standing in the livestock ring for the very first time Thursday.

“I sold my sheep, whose name is Jumpy,” she said. “I’ve had him since January. Raising him was hard because I had to feed and water him. He’s also really noisy.”

While Obermiller said she was somewhat nervous during the event, she’s already looking forward to next year.

“This is a lot of fun,” she said. “I think that I want to do it again.”