BY SHERI McWHIRTER
smcwhirter@record-eagle.com
---- — Traverse City — It's been a hot and plentiful week at the Northwestern Michigan Fair, the annual multi-county event in Traverse City.
"Fair week has gone great, except the heat's been a little rough," said Darrel Robinson, Northwest Michigan 4-H Livestock Council president. "At the auction we had over 100 new buyers this year and we set a record in auction receipts. We set a record last year and we did it again this year."
The auction brought in about $375,000, up from $358,000 last year.
"Seventeen grand more in this economy? It's tremendous support," Robinson said.
Rachel Wagner, 16, of Grawn, worked to keep the lamb pens tidy on Saturday, the 2010 fair's last day. Red Ginger Restaurant bought her 130-pound lamb named Egor for nearly $700 and donated the meat to the Goodwill Inn homeless shelter in Traverse City, she said.
"Normally it goes for a Christmas party for people who don't really need it. I'm glad he can make a difference in the community," Wagner said, looking down at her gray-colored lamb resting in the sawdust.
The fair's last day also brought a top win for Ryan Barnhart, 18, of Kingsley. He'd already won grand champion for swine and then took the top prize as the grand champion round robin winner after successfully showing each species at the fair.
"After 15 years of showing, getting grand champion for swine and then winning round robin was crazy, overwhelming and unexpected," he said.
Barnhart planned to leave the fair Saturday night and head straight to college. He will attend Grand Valley State University for a couple years before he intends to transfer to Penn State to study petroleum engineering.
He described his 4-H experience as "very rewarding" and said he will take the lessons with him.
"It's definitely been challenging. It shows a kid a lot about responsibility. You have to walk that pig every day and feed him two or three times a day," Barnhart said.
Another major achievement at this year's fair is the collection of enough money to move forward with a new swine barn at the fairgrounds. Donations came in around $82,000 and when combined with last year's collections, will nearly pay for a new $100,000 concrete-floored barn that will be bigger and better ventilated than the existing one.
"That swine barn was moved out from the original fair downtown in the mid-70s. The roof has become really rusty and thin. And the barn isn't big enough for our program. We put the extra pigs in the lamb barn," Robinson said.
Bethany Clous, 15, of Kingsley, raised a hog this year and said she looks forward to the new swine barn at next year's fair.
"Maybe they can put some more fans in there and some hoses on the outside so we can cool them down," she said.
Her mother, swine species chairwoman Stacey Clous, said the greatest improvement will be with the coming metal bar cages that will allow better air flow to keep the animals more comfortable.
Demolition on the existing swine barn is expected to begin within two weeks, Robinson said.
