Grand champion steer goes for $22K as Great Frederick Fair winds down

Sep. 25—As the auction bids climbed and the crowd's applause grew louder on Saturday, Ella Jacobs began to cry.

There was plenty to be emotional about.

It was perhaps her last time participating at The Great Frederick Fair Youth Livestock Auction. And Cope, the 1,377-pound grand champion steer she'd spent nearly the last year caring for and bonding with, was being sold.

But, Jacobs said, it was her community's support that brought her to tears of gratitude as she led Cope around a pen at the front of a packed auction venue at the Frederick Fairgrounds on Saturday. Hundreds of cattle, goats, lambs, pigs, turkeys and rabbits were sold at auction Saturday afternoon, as the eight-day fair wound down — in some cases, for thousands of dollars.

"It was absolutely insane," she wrote in a text message to the News-Post on Saturday after Cope sold for $22,000, or $16 per pound.

Jacobs said the money will go toward her tuition at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina.

It also will go to the Michael Mosier Defeat DIPG Foundation — a nonprofit organization committed to finding a cure for diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma, a rare, aggressive form of brain cancer with a survival rate near 0% that primarily affects children, according to the organization's website.

The issue was personal for Jacobs and other members of the community gathered at the Youth Livestock Auction.

In September 2018, 13-year-old Kaisy Knott — who went by "KK" — died from diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma just one week before The Great Frederick Fair, which she cherished.

Jacobs and Kaisy had known each other since they were 8 years old. They regularly squared off in youth livestock shows.

Melany Knott, Kaisy's mother, said in an interview on Saturday that "Ella was [Kaisy's] biggest competition."

She said it meant a lot that Jacobs was putting part of her winnings toward an organization dedicated to finding a cure for the cancer.

"I'm not the first one," Jacobs said of her decision to donate some of her winnings to such an organization. "And I certainly won't be the last."

Chris Hawkins, a 33-year-old Carroll County resident and co-owner of Hawkins Erosion Control, cast the winning bid for Jacobs' steer.

"It makes you feel good, supporting a good family," Hawkins said.

Hawkins said he's attended the Youth Livestock Auction the last 15 or 20 years, and he used to buy from the Knott family.

Moments after the winning bid, Melany Knott approached Hawkins and embraced him.

Jacobs began showing cattle 10 years ago. And while she's traveled to regional and national shows, she said there's nothing quite like The Great Frederick Fair.

"It's very special to come home to your county fair," she said.

But after a decade of showing at her home county's fair, Jacobs said this was potentially her last year.

She got Cope in November 2021. The steer's name is derived from the name Copeland, who was the son of the man Jacobs bought the cow from.

Cope was "kinda crazy" when Jacobs got him, but the steer warmed up to his owner over time.

"He's kind of like a puppy dog now," Jacobs said, adding that Cope lets her lie down with him.

Jacobs wasn't the only one to form a close relationship with her animal.

"He was my best friend," Mycayla Lankford, 19, said of her 1,348-pound reserve champion shorthorn, which sold for $5,000.

"He became the family best friend," her mom, Hazel Sweeney, 43, said as she consoled her younger child about the sale of the shorthorn.

The bonds formed during months of hard work and time spent together. Lankford, who cared for her shorthorn on a farm in Emmitsburg, said she spent about five hours per day with the animal in the last year.

The Slimmer couple, Jack, 84, and Sue, 82, also know how much goes into preparing animals for the auction.

The Myersville residents have been attending the Youth Livestock Auction since the 1960s. They've seen generations of their family participate in the event.

On Saturday, their granddaughter, Alyssa Slimmer, showcased and sold numerous animals, including her 100-pound grand champion market goat and her 288-pound reserve champion crossbred pig. She was also voted the show's all-around showman.

"That girl works her butt off," Sue Slimmer said of her granddaughter.

Rising inflation in the last year made it more expensive to care for the animals. Sweeney said a daily bag of feed jumped from $17 to $30.

The auctioneers brought up the cost of inflation multiple times in an effort to get bidders to offer more for the animals.

Lankford, like many others in the event, put her own time and money into raising the animals for auction. She also kept financial records "down to the penny" of costs associated with caring for her cow, her mom said.

"It's something you gotta be committed to," Lankford said.

"It takes heart and sweat," Sweeney said.

"And tears," Lankford said.

Follow Jack Hogan on Twitter: @jckhogan