Friday, May. 09, 2008

More than 400 lots sold at auction

Children earned more than $600,000 in sales

It took a couple of forklifts to carry all the rabbits and chickens into the arena for the Small Animal Auction at the Merced County Spring Fair last Friday.

The auction included 45 meat pens of rabbits and nine pens of poultry.

FFAs and 4-H Clubs from around the county converged on the fair to see what dollar amount their animals would draw.

Bidding started at $50.

Some animals went for $200 to $250. Then there were the lucky participants. Ashley McElvany and Katherine Younce both had rabbits that auctioned off for $900.

Awards were given to some who participated in the small animal auction.

Jordan Silva was named grand champion. Tiffany Hendrickson was named reserve grand champion for rabbit pens and Krista Rangle was given the honor of best educational display of rabbits.

The combined total raised from the junior and small animals livestock auction is $627,167.32. Patti Toscano, fair coordinator, said this year's auction raised about $10,000 more than the previous year. In all 464 lots were sold at the fair.