County fair season has arrived in Colorado and supporting the youngsters showcasing their projects at the fair is a fine way to support agriculture. A fair can evoke memories of Ferris wheels and greased pig contests and fried foods. These are accurate, but the 4-H and FFA projects that don’t draw the crowds outside of those directly related to the competition are really where the support of visitors can make an impression. 

I’m the leader of my local 4-H club and my club members are enrolled in projects that run the gamut from sportfishing to shooting sports to cake decorating to livestock projects. My members include first-year 8-year-olds and high school seniors. Together, they meet and make decisions about how they will serve their community. They take a turn at public speaking by presenting information about their project before the group. They’re all deadly in the Science Fair when they reach middle school because this experience, and the experience of completing the required record books for each project, make Science Fair more manageable.

Now that the fair is here, they will partake in one-on-one interviews for general projects like robotics and .22 rifle and photography. They will sit across from a judge and answer questions reflecting on their project, what successes they celebrated, and which changes they will make for next year.

They will work in one of two concession stands – our shift is during the hog show – where they will greet customers, follow the food safety guidelines they were tested on, and they will count back change without a register or a calculator. I know – old school.

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The livestock kids who exhibit market animals – animals that will enter the food supply as opposed to breeding stock – have all been through a Meat Quality Assurance class. It is similar to the Beef Quality Assurance program. Kids learn about keeping their animals in safe facilities, how to properly read a veterinary medication label and how to properly administer the drug, including documenting it and calculating the withdrawal time. They learn about proper livestock handling, reading feed labels, and other nuances of having livestock who, in your care, will eventually end up on a consumer’s plate.

They will all complete record books for each project with financial records, essay questions, photos of their project, a running inventory of equipment and supplies, and a basic profit and loss statement.

The livestock kids will bring the animals to fair they have been responsible for daily for months. By the show’s end, they will have practiced proper feeding, clipping, exhibiting and carrying an impressive amount of tack in high temperatures. There will be goats that refuse to lead, sheep that escape their kid, hogs that run joyously across the showring, and steers and dairy cattle that have no intention of cooperating. Their kids will grin and bear it and try again next time.

Not every animal will qualify for the Junior Market Livestock Sale. Not every plate of cookies will qualify for the Colorado State Fair. Not every welding project will earn a blue ribbon. But the week will be filled with winners, too. Projects will qualify for statewide competition, livestock placing high enough will qualify for the junior market livestock sale, and some stock will return home to become part of the herd.

The junior market livestock sale at any county fair is exciting and the one in our home county of Morgan is no exception. Bidders are all treated to a dinner sponsored by local businesses with pulled beef, pork, goat and lamb sandwiches and everything else you might hope for. The buildings are just packed full of buyers and when Chuck and Bryson Miller take the block and begin, the atmosphere is exciting. The grand and reserve champions sell first and then the species rotate through by placing. Grandpas stealthily bid on their grandkids’ stock. Grandmas write down sale prices in the program. Friends catch up on all the news. Local businesses bid on stock owned by the families in the community who support them all year. The equipment dealers and feed stores and banks and local farmers and small business owners and irrigation companies and the area packing facilities and sale barns will all be there.

One of the best ways to support 4-H livestock kids is to attend the sale. Bid on the livestock. Buy a hog to split with your brother-in-law. Buy a steer for your family or gang up with a number of agriculture-appreciating friends and form a bidding pool. If raising your hand to bid sounds terrifying, you can even do an add-on with the clerk, which is lagniappe on top of the winning bid in the amount you choose for the kids you choose. Some businesses donate money to be split among all the sale qualifiers or all the kids selling hogs or whatever you choose. You won’t get meat, but you will get a thank you note and the knowledge that you put your money where it counts. Contact your local extension office or the extension office in the county of your choice, and attend the fair, attend the sale, bid, buy, or just strike up a conversation with a 4-H kid. They’ll be happy to tell you why they love agriculture. Tell them I sent you!

Rachel Gabel writes about agriculture and rural issues. She is assistant editor of The Fence Post Magazine, the region’s preeminent agriculture publication. Gabel is a daughter of the state’s oil and gas industry and a member of one of the state’s 12,000 cattle-raising families, and she has authored children’s books used in hundreds of classrooms to teach students about agriculture.