Livestock Auction only fair event left

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

While the 156th Van Wert County Fair is now pretty much over, for Junior Fair livestock exhibitors, this is the most important day of the fair, since it’s reward time for all the hard work put in taking care of poultry, dairy feeder calves, steers, pigs, goats, sheep and rabbits.

The annual Junior Fair Livestock Auction begins today at 9 a.m. and, if past sales are any indication, will last into the afternoon.

If today is “reward day” for Junior Fair exhibitors, it’s also the day when community businesses get the chance to show their support for the Junior Fair program and the many local 4-H and FFA members who exhibit livestock at the fair.

Furthermore, although they don’t sell their animals at the fair, Junior Fair dairy exhibitors get to share in the proceeds of the gallon of milk’s auction that traditionally opens the livestock sale.

Meanwhile, the last day of the fair was a busy one, with several Senior Fair livestock shows, thoroughbred and quarter horse racing in front of the grandstand and, to end the fair, the MICHINDOH Truck & Tractor Pull.

Today, most vendors and the rides are gone from the fairgrounds, with only the livestock auction remaining before the fairgrounds is again empty — at least until the Van Wert Hot Air Festival brings hot air balloons and a number of other activities to the fairgrounds this coming weekend.