MALTA, Mont. (NMB) – Last weekend’s Phillips County 4-H Livestock Auction posted its highest sales numbers in at least 20 years, according to Extension Agent Marko Manoukian.
Total sales topped $295,500, easily surpassing the $232,000 in sales in 2020.
45 pigs went for an average of $8.66 a pound, two lambs went for an average of $9.75 a pound, and the 35 steers went for an average of $4.03 a pound.
Manoukian says he’s delighted at the stellar outcome but is unable to pinpoint the exact reason for the soaring sales.
“I really don’t have a good explanation as to why. Maybe people were just feeling more generous with their pocketbook now that we’ve got some of the COVID behind us, but the new variant may be staring us down. But people maybe just felt a little bit more freer to spend, specifically in the swine category.”
Manoukian hopes that Phillips County 4-H can use the momentum built from the sale to continue to grow the program.
“We have good, healthy populations of livestock exhibitors, I think that’s one thing. We’ve grown in the beef category over the last few years. It’s suffered some attrition, older kids eventually graduate and they move on. But those young pig exhibitors got old enough to take a steer, they have to be 12 in our program to take a steer, so we just see that gradual maturation. And it’s gone from the 22 somethings to the 35 that we had this year, and I think that will continue.”
