Ray Poston walked out of the Montgomery County Fairgrounds Youth Arena on July 21 with a big early birthday present.

The Montgomery City resident earned a Grand Champion Award for her hog at the Montgomery County Fair Junior Livestock Market Show just a day before her 16th birthday. It’s the first time Poston earned Grand Champion honors.

“I’m pretty dang excited,” Poston said. “This is my eighth year (at the auction) and I finally made it happen.”

Poston found out about her award earlier that morning. The day before, she won her division in the hog show, but lost to Annie Robinson for the on-hoof championship.

“I couldn’t believe it, honestly,” Poston said. “I didn’t really think it was true, but I finally did it.”

Poston joined Lukas Oliver (goat), Logan Camp (ham), Malerie Schutt (steer), Lucy Ann Politsch (chicken), Lilly Korman (sheep) and Kyndall Groeber (rabbit) in the group of the Grand Champion winners at the junior livestock show, which lasted about four hours.

Reserve Champions were Robinson (hog), Kenley Wessel (goat), Rebecca Schulze (ham), Braden Schutt (steer), Chase McCurdy (chicken), Mylee Hans (sheep) and Liam Wilkinson (rabbit).

Poston, who will be a junior at Montgomery County High School this fall, received her hog when it was born in February. It weighs 307 pounds.

“I had it for several months and it’s pretty rewarding to see the end result,” Poston said.

Poston, who also raises cattle, sheep and chicken, shows a hog at the Montgomery County Fair every year.

“I look forward to it a lot because this is the time where we just gather as a community and show our support for small things like livestock,” Poston said. “So it really means a lot to me.”

Politsch, 10, was happy that her chicken was sold for $3,200 at the auction. It was bought by the Cobb family.

“I’ll put some of it in my bank account, some of it for college and some of it for the next fair to spend and have fun with,” said Politsch, who received her chicken from Tammy Teeter. “I can spend my money. I don’t have to use my parents’ money, so I don’t have to pay them back. I’ll give a little bit to my sisters because they kind of helped.”

Malerie Schutt, who graduated from Hermann High School in May, said she was thrilled to earn a Grand Champion award in her final junior livestock show.

“It meant the world to me,” she said. “I never had that title during my showing career, so to have that in my last year is a good way to end it.”

Malerie and her brother, Braden, raised their steer in a farm between Big Spring and Hermann.

“Since August and September of last year, I’ve been working with my steer to get to this point, leaning him around, getting him acclimated to different people and different experiences, washing him and walking him around because he does a lot of walking,” Malerie said. “There are a lot of things that people don’t see that are behind the scenes. It’s a lot of work to raise any type of show animals. It’s a super rewarding experience for sure.”

Robinson also participated in her last junior livestock show. She plans to attend the University of Missouri-Columbia this fall.

“The county fair is kind of the highlight of my summer,” Robinson said. “I love coming out here and spending a week in the barn. I’ll get to see all of my friends, who normally have crazy busy schedules throughout the summer. We would catch up and share our livestock that we worked with all summer.”

Oliver, who is from Wellsville, won his Grand Champion award for his goat, Teddy. He said he was looking forward to participating in the show this year.

“I love it,” Oliver said. “It’s a farmer’s dream. You get to see a whole bunch of animals and meet a whole bunch of new friends.”