Fair Enough
Today's 4-H auctions are very different than they were just a decade ago. The biggest difference is the growing popularity of premium auctions.
Made popular during the pandemic, premium auctions do not involve the sale of any animals. The bidding is for the premium, which is the amount above the floor price. I've heard some people describe it this way: you're buying the 4-H'er, not their animal.
If you're scratching your head trying to understand why county fairs would have an auction that doesn't involve any animals changing hands, you're not alone. Not many years ago, all 4-H auctions featured the sale of hogs, cattle, sheep, poultry, goats, rabbits and even the gallon of milk. However, during 2020, the 4-H program allowed youths to collect money through online bidding. The 4-H'ers kept the livestock but pocketed the premiums. Now, roughly half the 4-H auctions in the Exchange coverage area have shifted to the premium format.
Why? It comes down to efficiency. In a premium auction, each 4-H'er appears only once, so the auction doesn't drag on all day or night. The 4-H'er receives a bid that covers all the livestock they showed at the fair. A youth who shows three different species will receive one price for all three of those animals.
With a premium auction, the buyers don't have to figure the price per pound or calculate how much they will receive once the livestock is resold. All the bids are in a dollar amount, making it easy for everyone to understand.
The 4-H'ers retain possession of the animals, but some fairs allow them to donate their beef, hog, sheep or goat to a local food pantry. In many cases, the processing is free. Four-H'ers also have the option of taking their animals home and selling them privately. Many take them to a local meat processing facility. The animals sold in a premium auction have the same fate as those sold in a traditional auction.
The last fair I covered was the DeKalb County Free Fall Fair in Auburn. It's a premium auction, but the 4-H'ers still brought their livestock into the ring. That didn't make sense to me, but maybe I was overlooking something. Perhaps the 4-H'ers wanted to show how proud they were of their livestock.
Here at the Exchange, we used to rank the fairs based on how much money was raised in the 4-H auctions. However, we stopped doing that because of the different formats. You can't compare traditional auctions versus premium auctions because they are so different. That would be like comparing apples to oranges.
Another recent change is the add-ons. Many fairs allow supporters to contribute money after the auction has concluded. These add-ons enable 4-H'ers to have a bigger pay day.
Some fairs continue doing things the old way, and that's fine, too. The important thing is that communities step up to show maximum support for their 4-H'ers.