Originally published August 24, 2025 via The Daily Catch here.

Roger Loughran III, standing at right, raised a meat goat through the 4-H club, Got Goat Milk?, and it will join a local farm owned by Victoria Laperch, who stands to his right. Squatting is Nathan Clum (photo by Emily Sachar).

At Saturday’s Dutchess County Fair Livestock Sale, Roger Loughran III, a sophomore at Red Hook High School, might have sold and said a permanent farewell to the goat he’s raised for the past six months. But a stroke of luck came his way. Roger found a buyer who wasn’t looking for the roughly 35 pounds of meat the animal could yield.

Instead, Loughran’s Grand Prize-winning goat, Blaze, will have a new life, joining a growing collection of animals helping kids with disabilities.

For most of the 63 animals that earned the right to be auctioned and sold Saturday by their 4-H caretakers, the sale on the penultimate day of the Fair is the end of months, or even years, of work. It can be bittersweet. By design, the livestock sale brings in enormous sums — a turkey goes for $2,400, a steer for over $12,000 — but youth also face the realities of the cycle of life in the world of agriculture that ends, for animals tended and even loved, in slaughter.

But every now and then, an animal both generates a giant wad of cash and a chance at a second life.

Drs. Kelly Vonderlieth and Marcos Cordova of Rhinebeck flank Mackenzie Phillips, 17, of Beacon, from whom they purchased a heritage turkey for $2,400 (photo by Emily Sachar).

“We’re just talking about full-circle moments — it’s supposed to go for meat, right? But these kids put so much time in, they’re like pets,” said Lisa Loughran, Roger’s mom. “And especially this goat is so, so sweet.”

Roger’s friend, Nathan Clum, attracted him to 4-H three years ago. Roger started with pigs, a Clum family specialty, but it wasn’t for him. 

Then, he tried goats and found that he loved the agile climbers known for their intelligent, curious, and social nature.

They became Roger’s obsession as he researched breeders, selected animals, and raised this year’s animal to be a champion. When Victoria Laperch, owner of Cedar Hill Ranch in Wappingers Falls, approached him ahead of the auction, she told him she hoped her bid would win and she’d then add Blaze to her growing collection of animals.

“I love the mannerisms and how dedicated he was to his goat,” said Laperch, who won the animal with a $3,100 bid.

Hill-n-Hollow’s Emily Coon sold her steer for $10 a pound to Rhinebeck dentist Richie Ross (photo by Emily Sachar).

The gesture has special meaning for Roger, who was born with a rare disorder called Arthrogryposis Multiplex Congenita (AMC), which affects how his joints grow and function. 

The high ticket price will also ensure that Roger has enough seed funding to breed and raise more winning goats for the Fair, even after donating 10% of his take to an organization dedicated to supporting individuals and families affected by AMC. Other youth stash part of the sale fee for college.

But Blaze is in the minority. Saying farewell for life is part of the 4-H experience, and youth are raised to accept it – whether they sell their livestock at the auction or at market later. That doesn’t mean tears aren’t shed, as they were Saturday and Sunday, as 4-H youth bade a final farewell to their animals.

“It’s upsetting knowing that you’re raising them for that purpose,” said Adelle “Addie” Kilmer, who sold a Grand Champion roaster chicken on Saturday afternoon. “But, I know that in a few months, I’ll have another batch of chicks to raise.”

Longtime farmer Lisa Baker, right, stands with the lamb she purchased for a nonprofit she leads to help veterans learn to raise livestock (photo by Emily Sachar).

The auction started at 4 p.m. in a standing-room-only barn lined with wood shavings. Addie’s bird was purchased by Hobson Windows in Red Hook for $2,300, which comes to just over $174 per pound. Chickens usually sell for $1.50 to $2.50 per pound.

Giving back and encouraging future generations of 4-H and National FFA (formerly Future Farmers of America) students is a theme among buyers, many of whom graduated from the youth development programs themselves.

“It feels silly. It feels fun. It feels important,” said Dr. Kelly Vonderlieth, a chiropractor in Rhinebeck who spent 13 years in 4-H and now runs Pine Cone Acres Livestock in Rhinebeck, where she and her husband are currently raising 30 beef cows. “We save up all year. Agriculture is so important to keep top of mind for Dutchess County.”

Repeat buyers like Dr. Richie Ross, a Rhinebeck dentist, recognize both the months of dedication young people put into their animals and the quality of the animal product they’re purchasing.

Rhinebeck’s Tessa Mashburn, whose rabbit was bought by Elijah Bender, also of Rhinebeck, will get to keep and breed her animal (photo by Emily Sachar).

“These kids work their tails off behind the scenes, and it shows,” he said. “The quality of meat is better than anything you’ll find at the store. We all should support our local farms and the next generation of agriculture.”

He placed the winning bid, $10 per pound or $12,210 total, on a half-ton steer from Emily Coon of Hill-n-Hollow Farm in Red Hook.

​​A beef steer’s price varies significantly by type and market, but as of August 2025, live cattle are trading around $2.41 per pound, according to US Foods, a food distributor.

Thirteen-year-old Tessa Mashburn of Rhinebeck, another repeat winner at the Fair and the Commercial Rabbit Species Representative for the Youth Livestock Sale, sold her 8.6-pound Roaster for $1,900, more than 10 times the fee it would command at market rates.

“For the last four years, I’ve got Grand and Reserve,” she said, referencing the names for first- and second-place animals. “There’s a lot of competition this year, which is good.”

Elijah Bender, a real estate developer and co-owner of Foster’s Coach House Tavern in Rhinebeck and Foster’s at the Fair, made the winning bid. As in previous years, he has agreed to donate the animal back to Mashburn, who plans to use him to breed more champions. 

Others look further into the future, towards the lifelong lessons students take from participating in 4-H.

“You set them up for life,” said Lisa Baker, Addie’s mother, who bought the Grand Champion lamb, the Grand Champion Rabbit, and another rabbit. As an agriculture teacher and Future Farmers of America advisor for Ulster County high school juniors and seniors, she sees many positive effects.

All told, tens of thousands of dollars in winning bids Saturday left many buyers proud of the contribution they make to the future of agriculture. Baker buys animals for Heroic Food Inc., a non-profit she leads that trains veterans how to breed and raise market rabbits.

She also sees the impact on children. “Look at these kids leading these one-ton animals. You set them up for life. If they want it, they’re going to do it,” she said. “Livestock kids are a different breed.”

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Note: Foster’s at the Fair is the proud sponsor of 2025 Daily Catch coverage of the Dutchess County Fair.