‘Steered’ in the right direction
At the rate he’s going, Keaton Trom will be able to afford a pretty nice car by the time he’s 16.
On Saturday, the 12-year-old sold his champion pig, Big H, for $9.25 a pound at the North Idaho Fair and Rodeo’s annual 4-H livestock auction. As the Yorkshire-Hampshire mix weighed 265 pounds, Keaton will add $2,451.25 to the fund for his future wheels.
“He’s been a good friend,” the Post Falls boy said of the pig he has spent hours walking, feeding and grooming. “I’ll still remember him.”
Keaton and his three brothers have been in 4-H for years, raising rabbits and pigs and attending the livestock auction annually. Their mom, Tracey, and dad, Rick, are 4-H leaders and speak for dozens of other parents when they say they’re grateful for the community support. Every year, benefactors and butcher shops from around North Idaho attend and buy all the animals, ensuring a good return for the kids’ hard work.
“It gives the kids something wholesome to focus on and teaches great accountability and workmanship,” said Tracey Trom, swine leader for the Mountain Meadowlarks 4-H troop. “There’s a lot of things kids can be doing these days.”
Developer Marshall Chesrown, who has a ranch in Harrison, bought Keaton’s pig and said he’ll probably donate the meat to Children’s Village, a home for at-risk children in Coeur d’Alene. By 10 a.m. Saturday, he had also bought a “reserve champion,” or second place, chicken. And he planned to keep an eye out for animals raised by 4-H kids in Harrison, he said.
Among the other buyers were Les Schwab Tires, Tim’s Special Cut Meats, Stimson Lumber Co., Super One Foods, Shawn and Heather Montee and Joe and Ellen Gore of Hayden.
The Gores bought 11-year-old Christine Gisel’s champion Californian rabbits, which went for a record-setting $900 for three. Then they promptly returned the rabbits to the girl. Joe Gore said for years he knew an “old-timer” who would come to the auction and buy animals, then give them back to the kids. When the man quit, Gore said he decided to pick up the slack.
“I don’t smoke, so I take my smoking money and I burn it up on the kids,” said Gore, who’s been coming to the auction for the past decade or so. “I was born in New York City, and I always wanted to be in 4-H.”
The animal barns become a thriving community during the fair, with many families camping out in the surrounding fields for the week. There’s a flurry of activity, with kids sweeping sawdust, mucking stalls and scrubbing down animals in their plaid shirts, jeans and cowboy boots. These are youngsters who know the market price of beef, know how many pounds their animals gain every day and can intelligently discuss differences in breeds.
“My kids work 10 months” on an animal, said Bill Armstrong of Hauser Lake Ranchers 4-H. “They spend a lot of money and time in genetic selection and food to get great animals.”
They also get a crash course in marketing. One young boy wandered around the barn Saturday asking everyone “Do you want to buy a pig?” Others dote on potential buyers around the hot dog stand, asking if they can do anything or bring them drinks.
The attention appears to pay off at times. Chesrown said he was watching for one steer in particular.
“One kid wrote me a letter – a big, long personal letter, telling me all about his steer,” Chesrown said, smiling. The letter explained how much the animal weighed, what he fed it and how he raised it. “It was a great letter.”