The Kentucky State Fair grand champion country ham fetched $350,000 at a charity auction today. Harper’s Country Hams of Clinton produced the grand champion country ham.
The sale was conducted during the Kentucky Farm Bureau’s 50th annual country ham breakfast.
History was made on a couple of fronts at this year’s auction. For the first time in a half-century of sales, the auctioneer was a woman — Danetta Allen of Mt. Vernon, Ky.
And the 13.3 pound ham was bought by a first-time bidder, Yum Brands Foundation, the charity arm of the Louisville-based fast food company.
"We thought it would be really fun to come out and give back to the community in a different way, give back to the state, and really help with the breakfast this morning," said Angela Osting, the foundation's manager.
The $350,000 sale proceeds will be donated to the Fund for the Arts; the ham will be given to the Dare to Care Food Bank.
Fund President Barbara Sexton Smith says the money will be used to boost an existing collaboration with the Yum Foundation.
"The Yum Family Series is something that makes it possible for children to get to go hear the Louisville Orchestra perform, go to Stage One Family Theater performances and experience the arts in the classroom. So we’re looking very forward to that," she said.
The Farm Bureau breakfast also included speeches by Gov. Steve Beshear, U.S. Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul and Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer.
