By Mollee Houston
Special to the Miner
As spectators, competitors, and supporters attended the Pershing County 4-H Livestock show and sale on May 1, they entered an enchanted building decorated with a Disney theme.
Forty-nine local youth members comprised of both 4-H and FFA participated in the show, ranging from ages 4 to 18, demonstrating a variety of animals, including pigs, steer, sheep, and goats.
Oral demonstration winner was Annie Uhart winning one-hundred dollars cash which was sponsored by the Burrows Family.
In the rate of gain contest (which is determined by which animal gained weight at the highest rate from weigh day to show day) the winners included: Annamarie Uhart for lambs, Tyler Miller for beef, Hadlie Malay for swine, and in the goat division the winner was Colt Hardy.
Swine Awards: grand champion swine in the market class as well as best homegrown was Hadlie Malay, followed by our reserve market champion Kaden Chambers.
In the breeding the champion swine winner was Cade Liebsack. Top senior showman winners were Kaden Chambers and Dalley Myers, the top intermediate winner was Hadlie Malay, and for our junior winner it went to Lily Reynolds.
Our overall swine showman was Hadlie Malay with reserve showman going to Cade Liebsack. Top Cloverbud showman was Quentyn Liebsack. When asked about the show, Quentyn commented, “It was cool to see all of the different goats, sheep, steers, and pigs!”
Sheep Awards: grand champion market lamb and best homegrown winner was Annamarie Uhart followed by the reserve champion market lamb Fallon Henderson.
Jillian Bridges in the breeding division won champion ewe, and Addison Billingsley won reserve ewe.
Addison commented, “The show was super fun and cool. The only scary part was that my sister’s goat looked like a poodle!”
In the sheep showmanship the top two senior showmen were Jillian Bridges and Savannah Foley.
Top intermediate showmanship went to Annamarie Uhart, and the top junior showman was Addison Billingsley.
The overall sheep showman was Jillian Bridges and reserve sheep showman went to Savannah Foley.
Goat awards: the market goat grand champion was Averie Paredes; reserve champion winner was Colt Hardy.
Our breeding goat champion was Ian Paredes and reserve champion was Kelsey Collins. Goat senior showmanship winner was Jillian Bridges, followed by the intermediate showmanship winner Averie Paredes, and Junior showmanship winner Ian Paredes.
The overall champion goat showman was Averie Paredes with the overall reserve champion Ian Paredes.
Top clover bud showmen were: Ivan Malay (peewees), Ellee Houston (age group 5-6), and Barret Sullivan (age group 7 to 8). “The show was awesome! All the animals behaved well,” said Ellee. Barret also commented, “It was fun when I won first place! I think it was awesome that I had a chance to win!”
Beef Awards: for our market classes, grand champion winner and best homegrown steer was Devin Moura, followed by the reserve champion Reagan Burrows. Breeding champion went to Hadlie Malay and reserve breeding champion went to George Malay. Reagan Burrows was the top senior beef showman; with the intermediate beef showman going to Hadlie Malay; and the junior champion showman being George Malay.
The overall beef showman champion went to Reagan Burrows and reserve champion went to Devin Moura. When asked about the show, Hadlie said, “It was cool to see all of the different animals be shown in different ways.”
Round Robin Showmanship: Jillian Bridges was our champion round robin showman which is comprised of senior division competitors from only the top two showmen in each species- beef, sheep, goat and swine.
Youth get the opportunity to show all species for this award.
Best dressed winners were Colt Hardy and Addison Paredes. Old Timers winners were KayCee Paredes and Mark Paredes.
Similar to the Disney decorations this year’s 4-H Livestock show was magical.
All of the kids and animals did great, and the support from the community was humbling.
“It was really cool to see how generous the buyers were towards both the animals and the bake sale items,” said member Mollee Houston. “Thank you to everyone who came and supported our club.”
