News-Graphic/Jeff Kerr Allison Fister, shown here at Bi-Water Farm this summer, raised a grand champion boer goat at the Kentucky State Fair.

FFA's Fister, mechanics team win at state fair

By JEFF KERR
8/23/07

Two more state champions have been added to the roster of champs at Scott County High School, and both wear the blue and gold of the FFA.

Allison Fister had the grand champion boer goat in the 4-H and FFA competition at the 103rd Kentucky State Fair in Louisville, and the SCHS FFA agriculture mechanics team won the state championship and will head for national competition at the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis in October.

Fister's goat will be featured at 5:15 p.m. Thursday at the fair when the annual Sale of Champions is held.

"Allison's goat was the winner out of 347 entries," said Regina Fritsch, SCHS FFA advisor. "The Sale of Champions is an elite sale, and only grand champions and reserve champions are in it."

This is the 28th year for the Sale of Champions but only the second that market goats have been featured.

The sale auctions off the grand and reserve champion steers, hogs, lambs and boer goats. Last year, the eight animals auctioned raised a record total of $110,500. The previous high was in 2004 when the champion livestock raised a total of $100,000.

Although the steers raise the most money, more than $20,000 last year, with the hogs next, around $15,000, the goats bring a pretty good chunk of change, too, Fritsch said.

"Last year the champion goat sold for $6,000," she said. "It should be a little bit more than that this year. They bring very good money."

Fister's having the champion goat is "an honor and an accomplishment," Fritsch said.

"And she did it all herself," she added. "She started all this up with a couple of goats. She's a real entrepreneur."

Scott County has been adding to its reputation for bovines by coming up with some quality ovines.

"We have had a grand champion lamb before," Fritsch said.

The wins capped what Fritsch called "a wonderful week at the fair."

The agriculture mechanics team of Casey Wallace, Sarah Carroll and Bradley Darnell will try to win on the national level in a competition that requires several skills.

"They actually had to take a test and do a problem-solving event," Fritsch said. "They had to identify the problem, which was a horsepower and torque problem. They had to work through that and solve the problem with that."