Going Once, Going Twice, Sold!
The auctioneers’ chants echoed at the livestock pavilion of Fresno County Fair on Oct. 14, 2023. Hard working K-12 students representing their school showcased their animals to be auctioned off to the public.
The livestock pavilion featured 12 days of livestock events at the Fresno County Fair including showmanship, selection of champions and auctions.
“The Central Valley is the breadbasket of the world, so giving kids the chance to engage in agriculture fully by showing an animal, coming to the fair, selling that animal gives them real world experience and application into the jobs that they might foresee themselves partaking in in the future,” special event coordinator Tyler Collins said.
The students not only have the opportunity to showcase and sell their animal projects, but learn responsibility and gain agricultural business experience as well.
Student of Riverdale FFA (Future of Farmers America), Rafael Rodriguez brought his eight-month-old goat, Draco, who according to Rodriguea is not very patient and kind of crazy, was participating in showmanship and livestock auction
“Showmanship is mostly not dependent on your animal, but it’s mostly on you. It’s how you work with your animal. So if your animal is acting out, the judge wants to see how you work with your animal and how you move it around, how you maneuver around the ring,” Rodriguez said.
Showmanship also judges the breeder’s knowledge about his/her animals, so they also have to articulate clearly about their animal and agriculture in general.
Peyton Hare of Sierra High School is participating in the FFA Novice Showmanship, a class designed for students that haven’t shown before at a fair or event.
“The Fair is really exciting and I definitely get to meet a lot of new people. This will be my first time showing. So I’ll be in the novice class, but this will help me get into a more advanced class, so I can work harder and work with different steer,” Hare said.
Carli Pittman, a senior at Central High School, also the Fresno-Central FFA president, has been raising livestock since the third-grade and understands the hard work and value of raising livestocks.
“Being at the fair and having my own project has really taught me responsibility and how to take care of a living being. I believe it teaches you a lot of valuable lessons to take into your career,” Pittman said. “Raising your own livestock is ten times better than store bought, I think the meat would taste better when you know someone has put hard work into getting that animal to where it is.”
The students are not just participating in the Fresno County Fair for competitions, but to support the fair and educate the public as well about their animals.
“The special thing about these kids in this barn is their ability to be ethical in all of their dealings. Educating the public on what they are showing,” Collins said. “It takes months of feeding, investing time and patience into these animals to get them here, ready to sell and ready to go.”
