_{Thumbnail photo: One of the hog exhibits youth raised to show to judges at the 2025 Del Norte County Fair. | Photo by Heather Polen}

At least one person says she wants her money back after she and her husband purchased a steer from the Del Norte County Fair’s Junior Livestock Auction in August only to be told not to eat the meat when she received it two months later.

Patty and Harry Adams successfully bid on a steer a local Future Farmers of America youth raised, paying $17,665 for the animal. They sent it to Bussmann Mobile Ranch Butchering in Bandon, one of two butchers the fairgrounds offered to auction participants for processing.

“You bid, you buy, you pay and then the fair makes the arrangements as far as transportation with each butcher. We just walked away knowing our animal was going up to the butcher and was going to be processed,” Patty Adams told Redwood Voice Community News of the livestock auction which was held on Aug. 2 this year. “But usually you’re communicated with from the butcher or the processor within that month. I thought it was weird that I hadn’t heard from someone by the end of August.”

When she called Bussmann, Adams said she was connected to an automated greeting stating that processing wouldn’t be available until November. She left a voice message, but received no reply.

Adams said she also reached out to the Del Norte County Fairgrounds, but wasn’t satisfied with the response she received. It was November when Patty and Harry Adams were told they could pick up their meat at the fairgrounds. 

“It came down on an open trailer, it was not a refrigerated trailer,” Adams said. “They’re offloading it to everyone, calling people’s names. We get (our) boxes. We didn’t look at it really, we just wanted to get it into the freezer. That night is when I got a call saying don’t eat the meat and asking if we had inspected the meat — why would I inspect the meat?”

The Junior Livestock Auction is a decades-old staple at the Del Norte County Fair. Each year, kids with 4H, FFA and Grange spend months raising pigs, goats, lambs, chickens, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits and steers to show before judges. Their goal is to make it to the Junior Livestock Auction.

According to Doug Wakefield, president of the Del Norte County Fair Recreation and Parks District, the voter-approved special district created to support the 41st District Agricultural Association, the fair had offered Bussmann for years as a place to take animals for processing once they’re sold at auction.

On Monday, Wakefield told Redwood Voice that he didn’t have any “solid facts” as to why meat sent to Bussmann came back spoiled other than the situation was “a mess.”

“I had the same issue,” he said, adding that he had purchased a hog and two lambs at the auction this year. “I was trying to get a hold of them and they were just non responsive. When we finally did get their meat, obviously their freezers had been turned off at some point. (The meat) was frozen when we got it, but a lot of the meat I personally had bought was green.”

According to Wakefield, the fairgrounds’ legal department “took over” working with Bussmann.

Kim Floyd, CEO of the 41st DAA, the state agency that operates the fairgrounds, said she was unable to comment and that the California Department of Food and Agriculture’s legal department was handling the situation.

CDFA Public Affairs Officer Jay Van Rein confirmed that the state is involved with trying to resolve the situation, but there has been no litigation filed at this point.

“We are working with the company and the 41st DAA to make the buyers whole,” he told Redwood Voice via email Jan. 9.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture is also interested in Bussmann. Paul Sherman, the department’s meat program specialist, said he was conducting an active investigation. He was unable to provide details about the investigation, but he said he confirmed that as of Monday Bussmann was closed and “there’s no meat on site.”

Efforts to reach out to Bussmann were unsuccessful. The phone number listed for their shop is not functional.

David Scolari, chairman of the Coos Youth Auction Committee, said Bussmann informed the committee he’s on that they weren’t available to process any animals from their auction. The auction was held on July 25 during the Coos County Fair.

Scolari said he was told that Bussmann was short handed and they “didn’t feel they could do it.” He said he was thankful they let the committee know.

“All I know is that luckily enough, none of the Coos County animals from our youth auction went to Bussmann,” he said, adding that the animals bought at auction were sent to butchers in the Willamette Valley, though some of them were also sent to the Meat Cutting Room in Coquille.

Adams told Redwood Voice that she feels some of the fault for what happened lies with the 41st DAA Fair Board because it chose Bussmann as a processor. She said she knows of others who purchased animals at auction and got rancid meat back from the Bandon-based butcher. 

To Adams, in addition to being able to fill her freezer and gift meat to her family and friends, taking part in the auction is a way to support the community. She said she hopes people don’t think twice about participating in the 2026 auction.

“These kids work hard to raise these animals,” Adams said. “And they take the money and typically use it to go to college. It’s a community-feel good thing. The concern is people are going to be gun-shy next year, which will impact the kids.”