By By JOHN EBY
Dowagiac Daily News
CASSOPOLIS - The 154th Cass County Fair set at least four new records, including dollar total, $405,792, with Thursday's livestock auction.
The previous mark, $360,959, was set last summer, with that amount paid for 565 animals. The 2005 fair sold a record 594 animals, snapping a mark of 572 set in 2002.
The 78 beef sales is a new high, as is the $5.50 per pound paid by Michigan Valley Irrigation for the dairy feeder animal exhibited by Amanda Hassle of Dowagiac.
At 540 pounds, the purchase totals $3,218.
The auction in 2003 made $322,566 for 526 animals, surpassing the $281,113 record set in 2002, which had eclipsed the $267,180 mark of 2000 from 490 sales.
The 2001 sale of 497 animals made $251,768.
Youth livestock exhibitors sold 476 animals for $230,344 in 1998.
In 1999, youth livestock exhibitors sold 468 animals for $239,579.
Records have been kept since 1986.
Seventy-eight beef sales for $106,500 averaged 94 cents per pound, compared to 64 for $93,964 and $1.18 in 2004 and 63 for $86,224 and $1.06 in 2003.
The $64,877 bid on 85 dairy feeder steers represents a per-pound price of $1.40, compared to $51,870 for 71 and a per-pound price of $1.40 in 2004 and 63 for $43,865, or $1.32 per pound, in 2003.
Ninety-one lambs sold for $34,864 averaged $3.20 per pound. In 2004 94 lambs sold for $34,748, or an average of $3.04 per pound. The figures for 2003 were 89 sheep sales for $23,948, or $2.80 per pound.
In the swine sale, pigs averaged $2.28 per pound with 340 purchased for $198,451, compared to 336 bought for $178,577 ($2.12 per pound) in 2004 and 311 bought for $159,299 ($2.01 per pound) in 2003.
The gallon of milk representing youth dairy exhibitors generated $1,100, down from $1,800 in 2004 and $3,300 in 2003. The record, $7,100, was set in 1999.