Experienced eye, cool head needed in lamb competition

MOSES LAKE — That lamb just would not behave. 

It didn’t want to enter the arena for market lamb competition. It didn’t want to follow the other lambs as the judge sent them around in a circle. Its owner, Liam Segura Jones, tugged and pushed, and the lamb pushed back and escaped.  

It was Liam’s first time in the show ring, but he wasn’t very nervous, he said, although there were a lot of people watching market lamb competition on the first day of the Grant County Fair.  

“I was just, like, kind of (nervous),” Liam said.  

When an animal gets loose in the ring the only thing to do is to go after it, and Segura Jones did. He took a couple deep breaths, he said, and herded it into a corner. 

Like swine classes but unlike cattle classes, lamb competitors take their animals into the ring without a lead. An exhibitor with a grouchy lamb is allowed to use a lead, but Liam didn’t need it. He got the lamb back into line.  

The first day of livestock classes is when competitors learn how the work they’ve done over the spring and summer is going to pay off. Makayla Lustig, a Future Farmers of America competitor from Moses Lake High School, said success starts early. 

"They’re mainly looking for how big your lamb is,” she said. “Just the overall build of your lamb.” 

As a result it’s important to choose an animal with a good skeletal frame — straight back with a wide chest and hips, she said.  

Elijah Brown, who’s also in the MLHS FFA, said the judges want an animal that is neither too lean nor too fat.

 “You need a good balance in between,” Brown said.  

He was giving his lamb a final bath before entering the show ring, assisted by his cousin and fellow Moses Lake FFA member Andres Bustillos. His lamb took offense to waiting while the two answered questions and made its feelings known. 

“I know, Delilah,” Brown said, giving it a pat on the head.

They’re the latest in a long line of family competitors in the lamb class; Bustillos followed his oldest sister, who got other family members interested, including Brown’s sister.  

“There were about eight of us that were (competing),” Bustillos said.  

Brown, however, didn’t really get interested until his ag class at MLHS. His teachers suggested getting into animal competition. 

“We had room in our backyard, so I (said), ‘Yeah, let’s do lamb,’” he said.  

Once a competitor picks a lamb, Lustig said, it’s all about diet and exercise. 

“You have to feed it right,” said Grady Stewart, Royal City, a member of the Liberty Livestock 4-H club.  

Stewart too was giving his lamb one final bath before entering the show ring. He paid special attention to the lower leg, where the hair is allowed to grow a little longer. 

“You’re supposed to fluff it out, make it look better,” he explained. “It makes the legs look bigger.”  

Wednesday is livestock fitting and showing competition, where participants are tested on their skill in keeping their animal under control while in the show ring. The fair runs through Saturday. 

    Liam Segura Jones had to fight his lamb to keep it in line in market competition. It got away, but he chased it down.
  

    Judge Kurt Burns studies the entries in lamb competition at the Grant County Fair.
  

    Fair competitors are taught to keep their eyes on the judge at all times.
  

    Their eyes on the judge, Grant County Fair competitors walk their lambs around the show ring.