Champion cow bought at Johnson County Fair will be donated to food bank

IOWA CITY – A thousand-pound cow auctioned off at the Johnson County Fair last week will go a long way toward helping hungry families.

Johnson County Board of Supervisors Chairman Pat Harney organized a group of businesses and individuals to make a bid at the livestock auction on Friday and donate the beef to the food bank at the Crisis Center of Johnson County.

Harney said the idea came after attending a lunchtime meeting earlier in July at which Crisis Center employees spoke about their needs at the food bank.

“I thought this would just be a different way of doing it,” he said.

The price was right for the 1,045 pound calf at $1,201.75, or $1.15 per pound. It's now being processed and is expected to produce more than 350 pounds of ground beef.

The food bank gets some pork and venison donations but rarely receives beef, and beef is too expensive for the bank to buy on its own, so the donation is greatly appreciated, said Sarah Benson Witry, the food bank's director.

“We are really excited to get that beef,” she said. “Our clients will really appreciate it.”

Clients receive certain foods and then can make additional selections, and Benson Witry said the ground beef will be one of those options and she expects it to go fast.

Last year the food bank served more than 4,500 families, she said.

Dan Steines' company, Big Country Seeds in Tiffin, is one of the companies that donated to the effort (see a list below). He said he saw it as a way to help out the Crisis Center and kids in 4-H.

“I thought it would be a good way to give back to the community,” he said.

The calf, which is technically a heifer, was raised by Stephanie Fisher, an 18-year-old recent Clear Creek Amana graduate from Oxford. The animal, named Madison, was the Johnson County Fair's champion carcass heifer, which means it was rated as having the best meat. It was the reserve champion for second-year bucket/bottle calf, meaning it was two-years-old and Fisher raised it herself.

She said she'd had Madison since the calf was three days old. She cried when she took it to auction, as she always does with her animals, because she considers them pets. Then, as she exited the auction ring, her dad told her about the donation.

“I was so sad, but I was very happy because it's going to people who need it,” she said. “When I heard, the tears stopped.”

Fair