Kenley Wessel had a pair of reasons to celebrate at the Montgomery County Junior Livestock Auction on July 23 at the Montgomery County Fairgrounds.

The Montgomery City resident not only won another Grand Champion award, but she was the first exhibitor to show her animal.

Wessel, who will be a junior at Montgomery County High School this fall, earned Grand Champion honors for her 110-pound goat Chuckles. Three years ago, she got a Grand Champion award in the goat category.

“It feels so rewarding because I poured blood, sweat and tears into this showing and I look forward to it every year,” Wessel said.

Wessel was one of 259 exhibitors in the five-hour auction that ended close to midnight. She said she was happy that she was the first exhibitor to show her animal. The goat exhibitors were the first ones to show, followed by chicken, steer, hogs, lambs and rabbits.

“It’s honestly surreal because there are so many animals here,” Wessel said.
There were 93 hogs in this year’s auction, more than any other animal. There were 71 rabbits, 32 steer, 31 lambs, 14 chickens and 14 goats.

No announcement has been made on the gross receipts of this year’s auction. Last year, the auction made a record $714,121.

The other Grand Champions were Waylon Deeker (chickens) and Emery Rodgers (lambs) of the Bellflower Boosters, Elaina Uthlaut of Hermann FFA (steer), Chase McCurdy of the Middletown Meddlers (hogs) and Cohen Beattie of the Montgomery County FFA (rabbits).

Beattie, who will also be a junior at MCHS this fall, picked up his first Grand Champion award. His younger brothers, Jett and Miles, finished in the top 10 in the rabbit category.

“It’s pretty awesome,” Beattie said.

The Reserve champions were Matthew Oliver of the Coon Creek Cronies (goats), McCurdy (chicken), Samuel VanBooven (steer), Maggie Causey (rabbits) and Tanner Grotewiel (hogs) of the Big Spring Busy Beavers (steer) and Chase Ebker of the Jonesburg Kountry Kids (lambs).

In 2023, Wessel won Grand Champion honors for her 117-pound goat named Bubba while she was a member of the Jonesburg Kountry Kids. She got Reserve Champion awards in 2022 and 2024 and placed third last year.
Wessel, who is a member of the MCHS FFA, said the fair is something she always looks forward to every year.

“I love everything about the fair,” Wessel said. “I love the people, I love the livestock. The overall vicinity of it is just amazing.”

Wessel said one of the best things about the livestock auction is seeing the younger people coming up to her and asking questions about goats.

“I’m always more than willing to help them because I want to see them succeed,” she said. “Honestly, the bigger wins are whenever the younger kids choose to come back the next year and enjoy showing goats because that’s really what it’s all about.”

Also, 16 Montgomery County-area seniors showed their animals at the auction for the final time. They were Uthlaut, Mason Bader, Skylar Bethmann, Gracie Cobb, Kaylie Marie Davis, Colby Ellis, Abbie Freie, James Hans, Garrett Jacob, Wyatt March, Melanie Mueller, Baileigh Nichols, Chase Queathem, Malorie Schulte, Braden Schutt and Seth Walton.