Ritzville Fair livestock auction does well this year

RITZVILLE — As part of the Wheat Land Communities Fair in Ritzville, the Ritzville Livestock 4-H Club hosted an open livestock auction Saturday, where youth involved in the fair and other members of the community sold their animals.

Lori Williams, livestock sale secretary, vice president of the Wheat Land Communities Fair Board and head of the Ritzville 4-H Club, explained the basics of the event.

“So all of these kids are 4-H and (Future Farmers of America) members,” said Williams. “The steers were purchased last fall and it takes them that long from beginning to end, and then it kind of culminates here at the sale.”

Williams said the auction helps 4-H and FFA members recoup the cost of raising the animal and that money can be used to fund next year’s project.

“It is their full responsibility to raise, feed, care for, manage and really market them as well,” Williams said. “We ask them to reach out to the buyers and bring them here to the sale and to make sure that they can recoup some of their costs because really these market values that you're seeing … if they were to sell that at that price, they would be losing money on their projects. So it's community support that allows them to make a profit.”

Williams said that there are other benefits to the auction — and the livestock portion of the fair as a whole — for the youth in the community.

“We like to keep kids engaged in production agriculture, So I think that's why you see such community support. We are an ag community. We want to keep them in the industry or at least have an appreciation for what it takes to raise livestock, and hopefully that's something that continues on in their life,” Williams said.

This additional focus partly comes from the community that the kids are raised in, said Williams.

“Here in Ritzville,” she said, “there's a lot of generational ties here. I grew up showing at this fair and selling and now my kids do and there's a lot of families like that, but we're just as welcoming to kids who maybe don't have that ag background. Maybe this is their glimpse and it might give them a taste for it and want to remain in the industry as well.”

Leading up to the auction, 4-H and FFA youth showed their livestock in showmanship competitions that focused on presenting their animals and the quality of those animals as a future source of food.

“They just spend their time kind of grooming and preparing their animals at home and then they get to show off, here at the fair, their hard work and then they get rewarded at the sale,” said Williams.

This year, Williams said it was mostly 4-H and FFA members in the auction, but it is also open to adults and to younger kids who may not be eligible for 4-H or FFA yet.

Livestock competitor Alyssa Williams, Lori Williams’ daughter, said that this year she won champion steer and champion lamb and that she did pretty well at the auction. Williams said she is involved with multiple fairs.

“I guess my first experience showing has always been here,” said Alyssa Williams. “I started when I was, like, six and my family would bring little calves here that we'd all show together, and I started showing market animals as soon as I could. When I started the project I was eight but by the time I sold, I was nine. So yeah, I’ve pretty much been doing it forever.”

Lori Williams said that buyers for the livestock can be individuals or businesses and that they usually buy at the auction in order to support the 4-H and FFA members and programs.

“I'm still processing the numbers but it looks like it was a fantastic sale,” said Williams. “It looks like our pigs went as high as $15 a pound…We had a $5-a-pound steer. We had a $16 lamb. So those are very high numbers and we appreciate their support and I'm glad that those businesses see the value in supporting this.”

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