It was a day of goodbyes on Saturday at the Westmoreland Fair for the 4-H Club youngsters who auctioned livestock they had raised, for the exhibitors who packed up their booths at the fair exhibit halls on the last day and for the vendors who had been selling food and refreshments since the fair opened Aug. 16.

The junior livestock sale featured 217 chickens, goats, hogs, lambs, rabbits and steers that were scheduled to be sold to the highest bidder over several hours that stretched from morning into afternoon in a hot auction barn.

Among those selling animals at the auction was 9-year-old Emma Huber of Derry Township, whose three Cornish Cross chickens were among the early sales.

Emma, the daughter of Jackie and Dustin Irvin, fed and bathed the chickens at her grandfather Ken Reed's farm in Derry Township. She raised the chickens — Fluffy, Marshmallow and Snowball — from peeps in June.

“It's a lot of work,” said Emma, as she fed and watered the three chickens after putting them back in their pen.

Emma, who also raised a pig that was auctioned Saturday, said she will continue raising animals.

“I want to do it next year and probably as many years as I can,” said Emma, who will be a fourth-grade student at Grandview Elementary School in the Derry Area School District.

Being involved in 4-H and raising animals for sale at the fair are things her family has done before. Jackie Irvin said her brother raised animals shown at the fair.

“It's kind of a family tradition,” Emma's mother said.

Record crowd

With only one bad evening of weather — on Thursday — Westmoreland Fair officials were pleased with the turnout.

“We ought to be close to the record,” in terms of attendance, Craig Lash, president of the Westmoreland Fair, said Saturday afternoon as visitors poured onto the fairgrounds in Mt. Pleasant Township.

Last year was a record year, drawing about 63,000 people, said Lash, a Sewickley Township dairy farmer who milks 50 cows.

All week, the attendance has been above average, with weeknight crowds ranging from 3,000 to 4,000 people, Lash said.

The fair drew the biggest single-day crowd in its history on Aug. 17, when Monster Truck Races was the big attraction that brought 13,000 people to the fairgrounds, Lash said.

“If you bring something the kids like, that brings in the parents,” he said.

Having all the visitors at the fair gives the agriculture community the chance to educate people about the source for the food they buy at the supermarket.

“They can see where their bacon comes from, where their eggs come from, where their chicken comes from and where their vegetables come from,” Lash said.

“This is the only place you get to showcase agriculture. We're the No. 1 industry in the state and in Westmoreland County,” he noted.

Joe Napsha is a staff writer for Trib Total Media. He can be reached at 724-836-5252 or jnapsha@tribweb.com.

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