Madison County 4-H is pleased to announce the Country Ham Auction this year was a major success! While we brought in more than $31,000 for the youth of our county, we also strengthened the community partnerships and instilled in the youth the importance of hard work! The youth involved in the country ham project are ages 5-18, and they cure two hams, give speeches at the county and state fairs, and call or visit local businesses to invite them to attend our country ham auction. This year, we had four state fair winners in our county! Kiera Rice and Jerri Richmond each got 2nd place with their hams in their respective age divisions, Kate Calico received 3rd place in her age division with her speech, and Kyla Harris had the champion speech in her age division! Kyla also received 3rd place overall in her age division, which is determined based on the average of speech and country ham scores at the state fair. 

After all of the work is done, students in enjoy a night to celebrate their hard work at the Madison County 4-H Country Ham Auction! Local Businesses and individuals came out and bought 37 youth hams for a total of $28,275! This money goes directly back to the youth who cured the ham! Two hams were donated back to be sold to benefit Madison County 4-H, and we received a total of $3170.50 between these hams and the silent auction! We could not reward our youth for this project in such a big way without the support of our community!