Hundreds attend Grant County Fair Livestock Awards

MOSES LAKE — The Grant County branches and chapters of 4-H, Future Farmers of America and Washington State Grange partnered to host the annual livestock awards at the Grant County Fair Saturday afternoon in the Sale Barn.

The awards honored youths for their livestock showings throughout the fair week. Bleachers surrounding the hay-covered floor were filled with hundreds of children, teens and family members waiting to see if they won an award or to support other youth livestock competitors.

The Washington State University Extension Animal Sciences Regional Specialist Sarah Maki Smith – who works with and organizes 4-H and FFA educational programs — was one of the organizers of the awards and one of the many presenters at the event itself.

“So you had a couple of sets of awards given out within each species,” Smith said. “You heard individuals that had like, champion steer or champion market lamb or champion rabbit. And those evaluations are on the quality of the animal from a food animal perspective. But you also heard (the presenter) talking about champion fitting and showing, or showmanship, and that’s how the young person presents themselves with their animals, how they show off the animals to the best of its ability. How tame it is, how clean it is…those types of things.”

Smith said that the competitors are also asked questions about their livestock to test their knowledge as well their skill and presentation.

The awards were given to Grand Champions and Reserve Champions, who were essentially second place or runners-up. The awards were further divided by organization and into levels of experience, said Smith. There are novice classes so that junior competitors are not at an unfair disadvantage competing with older, more experienced showmen.

“We're teaching about production, agriculture, they're learning about the raising of a food animal,” said Smith. “But … I think the bigger thing that comes out of this is life skills. They learn responsibility, they learn how to present themselves, you know, these kids have had to do demonstrations. And so it's trying to build that character and life skills that they'll use later on.”

Smith said she is also focused on making sure that the competition livestock is just as high quality as other livestock in regard to food safety.

“We expect them to have the same high level of excellence,” said Smith. “We have a real rigorous inspection service for our U.S. meats to make sure that they’re safe and high-quality, so the kids have to do that, too. So they learn a lot about production agriculture.”

4-H member Haidyn Sutor said that she was very happy with her reserve champion award for her springer heifer.

“On my end, it's just the beginning,” Sutor said, “to where I pick her out and see how she'll grow, and just feeding her like the requirements to get her to grow so she can be the best she can be.”

Sutor said that she put a lot of effort into showing the heifer.

“It's a two-year project on my part,” said Sutor. “We spend a lot of time with them.”

Ashley Zagelow, also a 4-H member, explained what award she won.

“I won an award for fit and show dairy cows. I got reserve,” said Zagelow. “That means that I had the second-best showmanship out of all the kids showing their dairy cows.”

Zagelow said that her love of the cows is what motivated her in the competition.

“You can't really pursue something and really be good at it if you're not really passionate about it,” she said. “I mean this is my first year winning, so you just gotta keep on trying. You can't ever quit.”

Both Sutor’s and Zagelow’s awards were decorative belt buckles — several winners could be seen wearing their buckles immediately after the event. Sutor and Zagelow both said they would be returning to the Grant County Fair next year.

“We had a great fair,” said Smith. “We had record heat, but you know, these kids have listened, the parents and leaders, they do their due diligence … So we really had a great fair, but we have a lot of very tired people, both the kids and the volunteers. It was really good. And we definitely do want to thank our volunteers and our buyers that support this program because it is what helps drive it for success in future years.”

Gabriel Davis may be reached at gdavis@columbiabasinherald.com. Download the Columbia Basin Herald app on iOS and Android today.