Two prize winning country hams were sold at auction Monday for $9,500 at the third annual FFA sponsored Ham Breakfast held at the Tennessee State Fair but getting much of the attention at the $30 per plate event attended by an audience of about 600 community, business and political leaders were the state’s seven announced gubernatorial candidates.
For the first time since announcing, all seven candidates, including five Republicans and two Democrats, appeared on stage together to answer questions from FFA members on topics that included agriculture, education and the economy.
Each candidate was given the opportunity to make an opening statement, answer questions presented by FFA members, and make closing comments.
Republican candidates attending included Sen. Mae Beavers, House Speaker Beth Harwell, Sixth District Congressman Diane Black, Randy Boyd, the former State Economic and Community Development commissioner, and Nashville businessman Bill Lee. Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean and State Rep. Craig Fitzhugh were the two announced Democrats in attendance.
Farm Credit Mid-America purchased the first State Fair champion ham auctioned, a trim style ham placed in the Fair’s annual ham competition by Kody Kimbrough of Pulaski, for $5,000, while the Tennessee Farm Bureau Federation, out bid others to buy the second ham, a packing house trim style ham cured by Scott Dabbs of Mt. Juliet, for $4,500.
Both champion hams came from family curing operations with a tradition of winning the country ham competition at the Tennessee State Fair. Kimbrough is the grandson of Betsa and David Bolden of Lynnville, champion ham winners last year, and Dabbs is the son-in-law of Ed Rice Jr., Rice Country Hams, Mt. Juliet. Rice and his late father have won the State Fair ham competition multiple times over the past several decades.
Proceeds from the sale of the hams and from tickets sold for the breakfast are to be contributed to the FFA Foundation to help fund a number of programs that serve the organization's youth membership, according to event organizer Chelsea Rose, Tennessee FFA Foundation executive director.
John Rose, who chairs the Tennessee State Fair Association board, a volunteer nonprofit organization responsible for producing the State Fair annually, said the FFA breakfast provides a “unique opportunity to showcase our state’s most talented youth to many of the state’s most prominent business and community leaders and in the case of this year’s event our next governor.”
“We are so pleased to help support the Future Farmers of America with the ham breakfast and we are particularly proud of what the FFA and its members contribute to our state and nation,” Rose, said.
The Tennessee State Fair, held annually in Nashville at the Nashville Fairgrounds on Wedgewood Avenue, opened Friday, September 8, for a 10-day run. The Fair is to close Sunday, September 17. For more information about the State Fair visit www.tnstatefair.org
