Grant County Fairgrounds livestock auction details announced
Casey McCarthy/Columbia Basin Herald Kyia-Hunter Kanoff and her sheep take a moment to stare at one another after Hunter-Kanoff finished brushing her animal on Tuesday afternoon in Moses Lake.
Casey McCarthy/Columbia Basin Herald Kyia Hunter-Kanoff brushes off her sheep on the sheep stand behind her grandmother's house in Moses Lake on Tuesday afternoon. After some uncertainty, Hunter-Kanoff is excited for a chance to finally show her sheep at Grant County Fairgrounds.
MOSES LAKE — Exhibitors participating in the livestock sale at Grant County Fairgrounds will drop off their animals Aug. 19, and the sale will be held Aug. 20 and 21. Final details for the event were announced Tuesday.
The sale and judging are the parts of the competition that remain after the 2020 Grant County Fair was canceled due to the COVID-19 outbreak and the restrictions imposed to fight it.
There will be restrictions on the livestock sale as well. No spectators will be allowed, and participants are required to comply with social distancing rules.
Exhibitors are limited to 4-H and FFA participants; the adult classes are canceled. Exhibitors will not be allowed to remain at the fairgrounds, and adult volunteers will feed and water the animals while they’re on the grounds. The livestock auction will be conducted online, using pictures of the animals submitted by the exhibitors, along with the animals’ weight at the time of entry and where they placed in the judging.
Animals will be judged Aug. 20. Judging will be done in the barns with only judges in attendance. Video and a livestream will be posted on the fairgrounds website and its social media so exhibitors — and anyone else who wants to — can watch the judging process and hear them explain their judging criteria. The website is www.gcfairgrounds.com.
Chuck Yarbro Auctioneers will run the auction. A link to the auction, and a video with instructions for creating an account and bidding, is on the company’s website, www.yarbro.com. People who need more information can contact the company at 509-765-6869.
The auction opens the evening of Aug. 20 and ends at 5 p.m., Aug. 21. Fairgrounds director Jim McKiernan said it’s a “timed auction,” where the bidding opens on different exhibitor classes at different times.
Registration for the sale closed Monday. McKiernan said there are about 250 animals registered, which is more than fairgrounds officials expected. In a normal year, there are about 500 to 600 entries, he said in an earlier interview.
The announcement that the livestock sale would happen was good news for exhibitors like Kyia Hunter-Kanoff.
“We’re not just left in the dark, and wondering what we’re going to do,” she said in an interview Tuesday.
Kyia had purchased a lamb before the fair was canceled. She registered it for the auction.
After the cancellation there was the possibility exhibitors wouldn’t be able to find buyers for their livestock if the sale was canceled also.
“Now we have security,” she said, and the possibility that exhibitors will make a profit on their projects, or at least break even.
McKiernan said the livestock sale wouldn’t have gone on without the help of a lot of people, from the fair’s livestock committee to the Grant County commissioners, from the Grant County Health District to fairgrounds staff. State legislators Tom Dent and Judy Warnick promoted the need for a statewide plan, McKiernan said.
“There were a lot of people going to bat for these kids and their animal projects,” he said. “In this time of chaos it was great to see how focused the community can get to accomplish something like this. I’m grateful for the people we have involved in the fair.”
