- Megan Silveira, assistant editor
Proceeds from Angus Female “Hattie” to Aid Young Couple’s Adoption Journey
The Smith Valley Angus Annual Production Sale offers more than just quality females.
Rocks, weeds and fescue are abundant in Salem, Mo., but Kim Smith of Smith Valley Angus still calls it God’s country — though the nickname comes accompanied with a soft chuckle. Smith was raised in the area and has fallen in love with both the local terrain and her Angus cattle that call the land home.
About 70 head of that herd will be sold Oct. 8 during Smith Valley’s Angus’s fourth-annual production sale. Smith says this is the best offering to date in terms of genetics and phenotypes, but one lot stands out from the rest — Lot 5, Smith Valley Hattie 9196.
The name “Hattie” comes from Smith’s grandmother, but it isn’t the ties to the family tree that make her special to Smith and her husband, Brian.
Hattie is a part of a fundraiser started a few years ago. All proceeds from the sale of this lot are donated to Sacred Selections, a group dedicated to raising money to cover adoption fees for Christian couples looking to expand their family.
“My aunts were having a fundraiser years ago for Sacred Selections,” Smith recalls of the first time she heard of the charity. “That was the name of an old, purple song book I had when I was growing up.”
Drawn toward the familiar name, Smith learned all she could about the organization. With the help of its founders, David and Dana Carrozza, Smith found a way to tie its mission to her family’s cattle operation.
Last year, Hattie was added to the sale order to help raise money for the charity. She was sold twice in the auction, first to Juston Mitchell of 2S Angus and then to Parker Friedrich and Wes Tiemann.
“Parker and Wes bought her and said to keep her and get her bred,” Smith explains. “We’ll sell her again as a pair this year.”
Between her two sales and generous donations from other attendees of the sale, Hattie brought in more than $13,000 for Sacred Selections last year.
Funds from this year’s sale will go to Clint and Emily Davis. As a young girl, Emily used to spend time at the sale barn alongside her grandfather, so it is only fitting her own family will begin at an auction.
“This is really from our heart,” Smith says of the donation. “We would rather Hattie sell high than anything else in our sale. Our main goal in life is to make it to heaven and take as many people as we can. The rest is just paying bills.”
Perhaps it’s the people of Salem, Mo., rather than the beauty of the rugged landscape that earn it the title of God’s country.