VIDEO: Livestock Auction by the pound from Richard Sayer on Vimeo.

By Ryan Smith

MEADVILLE TRIBUNE

WEST MEAD TOWNSHIP — “Ten-an’-a-quarter-ten-an’-a-quarter-ten-an’-a-quarter—ten-an’-a-half! ... Eleven-an’-a-quarter-eleven-an’-a-quarter—eleven-an’-a-half, now!,” chanted auctioneer Gary Shidemantle, keeping the Crawford County Fair’s 4-H and FFA livestock sale moving along at a quick and constant clip.

That steady, rapid rhythm is familiar music to Dave Livingston’s ears. He’s been at each and every one of the auctions, from the first in 1973 all the way up to the most recent on Friday night.

“I haven’t missed one in 36 years,” Livingston said. “As long as I’m able to come, I’ll come.”

On one hand, it’s a simple matter of commerce. At the Jamestown-based Livingston Packing Co., “that’s our business — selling meat,” he said, and “we get a lot of work out of this sale.”

But there’s something more to it, too. “We have a lot of customers whose kids raise projects,” Livingston said, and “we get an awful lot of letters from kids wanting us to bid on their animals. We can’t buy ’em all — there’s too many.”

There’s no doubt, though, that the Livingstons have given area 4-H and FFA members a good bit of business, bidding on and purchasing around a half-dozen animals at top prices each year.

“It’s just one of the things that we do,” he said. “It’s good for the community.”

At the heart of it, that’s a big part of what the sale is about, according to Frank Bizjak, chairman of the 4-H and FFA Livestock Committee.

Buyers “come to support the kids in the county” who are involved in the 4-H and FFA livestock program, he said, adding the sales typically total around $115,000 a year, some of which is often given back by sellers to benefit the committee’s scholarship fund.

“It’s a good program,” said Bizjak, and “it continues to be supported” by area buyers, breeders and the scores of volunteers who help make the sale an annual success.

But make no mistake — it’s not just about philanthropy or good business practices. There’s also some super-fine meat to be found in those swine, beef, sheep and goats.