Farm animals aren’t always docile.

This was obvious at the annual 4-H livestock sale auction held Saturday at the annual Carbon County Fair near Palmerton.

Take Natalie Mosier and her huge reserve champion steer. Mosier, a small-stature, 17-year-old veteran 4-H member, was the victim of her half-ton animal “bull-ying” her.

While Mosier tried her best to lead the steer around the arena for bidders, the large animal at times pushed her aside and proved uncooperative. Still, she managed to control it for the most part and impressed a buyer who paid nearly three times its market value.

Then there was Cheyenne Whiteman, 18, of Lehighton, in her final year of 4-H. With four hogs for sale at the auction, she had both the grand champion and reserve champion swine. Although she handled the reluctant pigs sternly to get them into the ring, they became unruly. Despite each weighing well into the mid 200 pounds, they showed great speed and agility as they resisted her control. Several times they raced toward the closed exit door.

The auction went smoothly, and bidding was brisk during the selling of the roughly five dozen animals, all of them 4-H projects.

The livestock action has been a staple at the fair since the beginning of the county exposition.

Auctioneer Tim Houser volunteered his services and noted that all the bidders were local, small businesses on hand to support the local 4-H. The Houser family has been volunteering at the Carbon fairs for over 60 years.

Besides the auction, the Jane and Floyd Fritz Memorial Scholarship, totaling $500, was awarded to Katherine Aaron, daughter of Bob and Mary Katherine Aaron of Franklin Township. This $500 award was presented by Richard Getz.

Several 4-H members received certificates for decorating and good housekeeping practices in their livestock pens.

For the 4-H members, raising and selling the animals is a rewarding experience.

Myers, 14, daughter of Daniel and Carissa Myers, is in her sixth year of 4-H and has fared well in previous fair judgings.

“We’ve always raised dairy cows,” she said, noting she is following in the footsteps of her older sisters who had been 4-H members.

“My mom’s side has a dairy farm,” she said.

She is a ninth-grade student at Lehighton Area High School and hopes to become a physical therapist.

At the fair, while not working with her dairy cows, she serves as “Junior Miss” for the event.

Whiteman, 18, besides having the grand champion and reserve champion swine, had two other porkers for sale. The daughter of Todd and Jan Whiteman of Lehighton, this is her seventh year showing 4-H at the fair.

Over the years she has had two grand champions and two reserve champion hogs.

She said she became interested in livestock and 4-H from Kelly Wentz, formerly of Franklin Township who now lives in Iowa. Wentz was active in 4-H both as an exhibitor and leader for many years.

“The most difficult part is finding the time,” she said, “because you have to be committed to do it. I usually raise five (pigs) at a time.”

She graduated from Carbon Career and Technical Institute as a cosmetology student, and now will be attending Triangle Tech in Allentown to study carpentry.

She said she found the most rewarding things about 4-H to be “the friends you make and life lessons you learn.”

Mosier, 17, is the daughter of Scott and Joyce Mosier of Palmerton.

In her ninth year of 4-H, she said her reserve champion steer was bred on the family farm.

She said she enjoys 4-H because of “raising the animals and thinking the products are going to feeding families.”

Also, she said, “Accomplishing some things with working with animals is really rewarding.”

Of the hard time the steer gave her in the ring, she said it was likely because “it was stressed out” at the unfamiliar surroundings.