Callie Cummings spent 10 months transforming a stubborn steer into a champion — and a record-setting sale.
SANTA ROSA, CA — A 12-year old girl and an ornery steer the weight of a large grand piano shattered a record this month for the highest price fetched in the annual livestock auction.
The Petaluma-area 4-H exhibitor shattered a Sonoma County Fair record when her Supreme Champion steer sold for $50,000, surpassing the previous record by $17,000, according to The Press Democrat.
Callie Cummings, a member of the Two Rock 4-H Club, raised the steer "Sterling" for more than 10 months before leading the 1,390-pounder into the fair's Junior Livestock Auction on Monday.
The $50,000 hammer price more than doubled the amount paid for last year's Supreme Champion steer and easily surpassed the previous $33,000 record, The Press Democrat reported.
The achievement capped Cummings' first year showing beef cattle. She has participated in 4-H since she was 5 and began showing market swine at age 9.
Her decision to raise a steer came during a difficult year for her family. Cummings' father, Sonoma County sheriff's Detective Steve Cummings, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma last year.
"We decided that we weren't going to put it off, and that we were going to let her do something that she was passionate about," her mother, Kristen Cummings, told the newspaper.
Sterling arrived at the family's home in October from an Iowa breeder, but the steer initially proved difficult to handle, the family told The Press Democrat. With equipment, advice, and assistance from family friends, Cummings spent months earning the animal's trust and training him for competition.
Her mother said Cummings handled the daily work herself, feeding Sterling morning and evening, washing him, and preparing him for the show ring.
By fair week, Cummings had turned the once-stubborn steer into the fair's Supreme Champion.
The fair's youth livestock programs include local 4-H chapters, Future Farmers of America organizations, and independent exhibitors. Participants develop agricultural, leadership, public-speaking, record-keeping, and financial skills while raising their animals.
This year's auction included 399 exhibitors. The livestock and agricultural mechanics entries included 76 steers, 199 lambs, 275 hogs, 45 goats, 47 rabbits, 27 poultry lots, and 15 agricultural mechanics projects.
The auction generated $2,720,120, surpassing last year's gross despite fewer animals in some divisions.
When the event debuted in 1967, the entire auction generated $72,936, fair competitive exhibits coordinator Hope Marshall told the newspaper.
Auction proceeds can help young exhibitors fund future agricultural projects, college, or trade school. Buyers can also make additional contributions, called add-ons, directly to individual exhibitors.
For Cummings, however, the fair produced something no previous Sonoma County Fair exhibitor had achieved: a $50,000 steer sale and a new place in the auction's record book.
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