ALEXANDRIA — 4-H livestock projects were turned into cold hard cash Thursday night, as kids sold their prize winning animals during the livestock sale at the Madison County 4-H Fair.

But not everyone was smiling after their pet-project was sold to the highest bidder.

“I was sad when I had to say goodbye,” said Alaina Conrad, a 10-year-old in her second year of 4-H. “He didn’t understand though. We don’t focus on the end until it comes, because it’s not so sad that way.”

When Conrad first received her pig five months ago, it weighed 40 pounds. When it was sold on Thursday evening, it weighed 234 pounds and went for $500.

“Spending time with him made me happy,” she said with a few unshed tears clouding her eyes. “He would pick up a stick and drop it and expect me to throw it for him.”

Alaina’s mother, Casey Conrad, helped her daughter go through a similar situation the year before, although Casey said it was not as difficult then because she spent less time with the animal.

“It is a several-day process,” Casey said. “We just had to talk through it.”

But according to Kirk Kitts, Pioneer Seed sales manager for Rydman and Fox, the goodbyes are not so hard as the kids get older.

“I can remember being sad when I was real young, and sometimes you see the kids crying when they have to say goodbye,” Kitts said. “But kids are resilient, and they bounce back.”

Kitts’ company bought a number of swine and lambs from the sale.

“We probably bought about 20 different swine and a few sheep,” he said.

The livestock sale at the 4-H fair offers young people a unique opportunity to make money beyond the normal market price for the livestock they raise.

“The market price for my pig was $104,” said Kyla Rhodes, 18, who is in her 10th and final year with 4-H. “So we get the market price plus what everyone bids on for the pig.”

After a bidding war for her fourth-place swine, Rhodes ended up with $850 from the bidders, plus the market price, netting her a total of $954 for her 200-pound pig. This was her last year at the fair.

“I’m sad to be done,” she said. “Because I’m going to miss my animals, but at the same time, I’m very glad to be finished with it all. It’s time to move on.”