Countywide : Top Steer Fetches $11,000 at Auction

Livestock prices were down at the Ventura County Fair this year, but a grand champion steer named Hammer still fetched more than $11,000 on Friday.

Bidders wearing 10-gallon hats and cowboy boots paid less for their meat-on-the-hoof at the annual auction, which has been a place of spirited grandstanding between local merchants competing to spend money for a good cause.

“Take another strong drink, look at me and raise your bid,” said auctioneer Tom Taylor to one man, motioning to the free liquor bar provided by the fair. “Get your nerve up.”

A Newbury Park tile salesman who said he wanted to throw “one heck of a company barbecue” took Taylor’s advice and bought the 1,100-pound grand champion steer for $10 a pound.

However, the overall price paid for lamb, goat, beef and pork has dropped about $1 per pound since last year, a grocery store spokesman said.

Vons district manager Brad Melvin, who purchased about $8,000 of livestock, said the recession and a smaller number of bidders at the auction hurt prices.

“It is disappointing,” Melvin said. “Some of the kids who raise the animals barely break even.”

Fair publicist Teresa Raley said attendance through the first 10 days of the 12-day event is down nearly 8% from last year. The top steer sold for $16.50 a pound in 1990.

Some livestock owners weren’t concerned about the drop in prices. They were just glad to be there.

Robert Brown, 13, of Simi Valley nearly missed the event because his lamb died in a dog attack two months before auction. The fair board, however, allowed him to enter a replacement lamb so that he could be part of the event.

“It was . . . rewarding for him,” said Robert’s father, Thomas Brown.

Another youthful participant, Nicholas Adams, 10, of Casitas Springs was allowed to enter a second goat after his previous entry died of food poisoning.

Both boys sold their animals Friday.