GREENUP — The annual Greenup County Fair livestock auction has always been something of a bittersweet experience for Keisha Whitt.

And this year’s sale, which took place on Saturday, was even more so than usual.

Whitt, 19, who sold an 81-pound Boer goat named Willie, an FFA grand champion, said parting with her animals was always difficult — so much so that she and her mother, Melvina Whitt, a 4-H leader and FFA volunteer, would go home and cry together when the sales were over.

But Whitt — who said she had raised animals and sold them at the fair since she was 9 — said part of her sadness over this year’s sale stemmed from knowing it would be her last one ever.

“I’m really going to miss it,” she said. “It was a great part of my life.”

Whitt, a Greenup County High School graduate, said she was preparing to leave home to attend Jackson Community College in Michigan. She said she was planning to enter the school’s veterinary technician program, the first step toward her ultimate goal of becoming a farm veterinarian.

“I won’t ever stray too far away from animals,” she said.

The $11 per pound Whitt’s goat fetched at auction will help a bit with her college expenses, her mother said.

Her goat was one of more than 120 critters that were led into the show barn at the fairgrounds and auctioned off on the final day of the fair.

The biggest in the swine group was Tinkerbell, a 280-pound FFA grand champion market hog raised by 15-year-old Lauren Skeens.

Skeens said it was the second year in a row for her to have the largest pig at the fair. What’s her secret to growing them so big?

“I don’t have one, really,” she said.

Tinkerbell sold for $3.50 a pound, a price Skeens said she is happy with because it was more than she got for last year’s hog. Mining Machinery Inc. was the buyer.

The GCHS junior, who has raised livestock since she was 5, said she didn’t have any special plans for the money.

“I’m probably going to put it in my savings for college,” she said.

Corey Billups donated a portion of the proceeds from the sale of his goat, Captain America, to a charitable organization he said he believes is doing great work. He said ten percent of the sale price would go the Heifer Foundation, which teaches sustainable agriculture to residents of Third World countries.

Billups, 18, said he found out about the foundation at the University of Kentucky, which he just began attending. He’s studying agriculture biotechnology.

Like Whitt, Billups was participating in his final livestock auction. He said he’d enjoyed the experience and would miss it now that it’s over.

KENNETH HART can be reached at khart@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2654.