Glad to see someone gets it.

There's often more local support out there than most believe. They generally just don't know the events are happening until they see the results in the paper. When local businesses find out a local kid who everyone knows works hard finally hit it big, they gladly want to be a part of it or at least want to be a part of helping push the big corporate buyer up as far as they can. On top of that, when the corporate buyer shows up to a sale and sees just how much the locals have gotten behind a kid they'll often call the office and let them know they've found a kid they need to up the budget on. 

I know a local banker who got a big thanks and a handshake from a 9 year old this summer even though he wasn't the winning bidder. He ran a national coorporate office up and in the process obviously went beyond what his original budget was. An impression was made and he came back out into the hog barn while the sale was going on to ask that 9 year old to pick out 3 kids she looked up to. Those kid's animals were well down the sale list, but sold well above what the lots around their pigs did. The price of those three pigs just happened to add up to the figure he quit bidding on the champion at.

Every state is a little different, but at the State level a percentage of the donations also fund scholarships. When a kid works hard to win, and then works hard to rally support, many forget that their work directly helped to support some of the kids they beat via college scholarships as well as project grants. Everyone wins on those deals.

Seems strange to say, but people who are no longer connected to the farm tend to show more support for the development of these kid's and their success than those who are still connected. It's ass backwards of what you'd think it should be, but it is what it is.