Menagerie up for sale

PORTALES - One after another, a menagerie of farm animals took the stage Friday night to be paraded around the show pen, bid on and sold to members of the Portales community. Some were carted off to their new homes while others were returned to the families that raised them.

The Roosevelt County Fair held its Junior Livestock Sale Friday night where a total of 60 animals were put on the block, earning $131,550 for young farmers.

The Show Arena was packed with bidders, spectators and exhibitors alike, many of which headed over to the Jake Lopez Building for a complimentary dinner after a long night of auctions.

"We had a pretty good turnout. The turnout for the fair overall was good," said Fair Board President Wayne McAlister.

Sales for this year show were about average, but many of the big-ticket animals were sold early into the night.

"We had lots of grand champions sell, the grand champion steer sold, the grand champion dairy heifer and the grand champion lamb," said Fair Board Secretary Sheila Hays.

The exhibitors spent most of the year raising their animals and kept busy this week making sure they were well fed, watered and bathed for the big show.

Zakk Bradley entered two pigs this year, one of which became the champion Yorkshire pig. This was Bradley's first year doing the auction and the first animals he'd ever raised.

"We didn't know what to do at first and had to ask the people we got the pigs from and he gave us some tips," Bradley said. "He told us what to feed them, how long to walk them, we didn't know what to do at all when we started."

Despite being a little lost at first, Bradley stuck to it and developed a routine. He fed the animals twice a day and took them both for 15-minute walks each day for exercise.

The show also had plenty of veteran exhibitors like Eli Terry who, along with his siblings Asa and Ali Terry, entered a total of 11 chicken pens into this year's show.

"We've been feeding them a certain kind of feed because they're not like normal chickens, meat pen chickens," Eli said. "We kept their feathers clean by laying down wood chips and the hardest thing lately is washing them the day of the show. Its the hardest part, but they stand out from everyone else's birds."

This was Eli's fifth year, his brother Asa's first year and his sister Ali's fourth year. The Terrys have only done chickens and rabbits so far and will likely continue that trend for awhile given how successful they've been. Asa exhibited the grand champion meat pen, while Eli showed the reserve grand champion this year.

While the exhibitors ran their animals around the show pen, bidders competed to see who would take the animals home.

Rick Wooley purchased a pig at this year's event for $1,900 on behalf of Hamilton Automotive Group. After the purchase, he turned around and donated the animal back to the family.

"Portales has a good community activity here. Their group has a wonderful turnout," Wooley said. "This whole deal is all for the kids. That's why we do what we do, to raise a little money and support these kids. There's nothing better experience than kids raising their animals and learning some responsibility."

Wooley, who also works as a superintendent for the pig show at the Clovis fair, said that the whole program is a great family activity and that he and his family have been participating in the shows for generations.

"It's a family deal. When my son Josh was little we raised pigs, steers, we did it all," Wooley said.