Cole County's 4-H and FFA students raised more than $27,000 at this year's Jefferson City Jaycees Cole County Fair Ham and Bacon Breakfast and Auction.
That's the highest total of the last few years - and the money goes into the pockets and bank accounts of the students who cured the meat, then sold it during the 70-minute auction.
"It all goes to a college fund," Keaton Forck, 11, said, "so it has a good point in it - and my parents kinda like that."
Forck's family has been farming for several generations.
He attends St. Peter School and said it's too early to know what college will get that money - or even what career he'll pursue.
He sold his ham for $350 and, earlier in the week, a steer for $3,179.
"The ham is, I consider, one of the easiest projects we do," he said, "because all you have to do is cure it, then let it dry on barn rafters or on the porch, and then you oil it and get it ready to sell."
Working with animals takes "way more effort. You have to go there every day - morning, afternoon and night, basically," Forck added. "I like the steer, because you kinda have fun doing it because you get involved (with it).
"I feel like way more happy when you get it done. You feel like, 'Gee, that was so much fun!'"
Jeff Suthoff - the Blair Oaks School District's new agriculture education teacher, who previously taught at Jefferson City's Nichols Career Center - has worked with the ham breakfast and auction for several years.
"I think kids do appreciate more what the community does to support them here," Suthoff told the News Tribune. "By the same token, I think the supporters' support has increased, as well, with the average sale price of the hams going up almost every year.
"It's just a great atmosphere."
Bill Gratz has donated his auctioneering services since 1972 and includes comments to the students like, "Look at Grandma. She may buy it," while continuing the regular auctioneer's rapid-fire patter.
Over the years, he has said, "We live in one of the most giving communities there is. The prices have gone up. The bidders have gotten more involved.
"And the kids have gone out - they talk to the community and they talk to the buyers and try to get the buyers to be here. And the buyers are supporting the young kids because the buyers know that these youth from the 4-H and FFA are good kids."
As in past years, seven area banks - Central, Community Point, Farmers (Lohman), Hawthorn, Jefferson, Legends and Mid-America, who compete with each other for daily business - combined to spend $6,500 Friday morning, buying 18 of the 65 hams and nine slabs of bacon.
Community Point Bank led that group with four hams, worth $1,375. Central Bank also bought four hams, for $1,100.
Gratz said: "They (all) have a customer base that they're supporting, and they're showing the community they support the youth."
Xtreme Body and Paint led other area businesses, spending $1,325 on three hams and a bacon.
Area politicians paid a total of $5,825 for another 18 hams - with state Sen. Mike Kehoe spending $1,325 on three hams.
When Sheriff John Wheeler bought one ham for $400, Gratz recalled former Judge Byron Kinder's comment that students involved in the 4-H and FFA programs "never see the inside of a courtroom."
Jefferson City dentist - and former city councilman - Bryan Pope spent $1,450 on three hams and one bacon and pointed to Gratz' comment as one of the reasons for spending that money.
"This is like rewarding good behavior, instead of so much of the time we focus on the negative," Pope explained. "This is the best youth activity we've got going."
Two of the hams Pope bought were cured by his grandchildren.
He said he likes to make opening bids that get the process going, "and sometimes you end up with more than you bargained for. My heart doctor wouldn't like all of this bacon and ham I bought!"
And he won't be eating all of it, Pope said. He intends to give some of it to family and friends.
"You know they're going to be good hams," he said. "We've never gotten a bad ham" from the fair auction.
Suthoff noted the students involved in the 4-H and FFA programs often are goal-setters.
"You'd be surprised how many of these kids are very, very involved kids," Suthoff said, "with multi-faceted lives just like the supporters. They're not the kids who are going to sit back and not do anything."