Roosevelt livestock sale still open for donations

After a hectic two days, Roosevelt County wrapped up its livestock show Wednesday with exhibitors now waiting to receive their premium checks.

Joy Levacy, Roosevelt County Livestock Sale Committee secretary, said the fund set up to pay for the premiums is still open for donations, and the committee will meet to discuss final figures once it closes.

"We don't have any of those figures yet because we are continuing to take those funds until (Sept. 2) and then we will have a meeting. At that time we'll know what those figures will be," Levacy said.

Sheila Hays, president of the Roosevelt County Fair Board, added that the amount of each premium will be based off of what percentage of the sale funds were paid to each species in the past. Under this plan exhibitors will be able to keep their show animal unlike traditional sales where the animal is bought and then processed for meat.

While she does not know how they got it all done in such a short time, Hays said the gratitude from the kids made it all worth it.

"The kids and families of this were very grateful because they worked very hard all year long with these projects. With a lot of kids not having school they spent more time with their projects than they normally do," she said. "Since the state fair is canceled, this is probably the only chance for them to show their livestock."

Hays reported that the number of exhibitors in some areas was down from what they normally are, which shortened the shows and made it possible to have everything done in two days.

"It's not overall, but a lot of our numbers were down. They were down in the pig barn, they were down in the dairy. Cattle were up ... and so were the goats. So we just kind of made it long days," she said.

As a major participant in the county livestock shows every year, the Portales Baptist Children's Home had 11 4H kids showing this year.

"We did pretty good," said Jamie Smylie, 4H leader and barn manager at the children's home.

"We had grand and reserved county-bred pigs and we had reserve champion steer. We also had a young girl, it was her first year, and she won first-year feeder in the pigs. We also had another first-year girl win first-year feeder in the steer barn."

With the 4H barn being right across the road from the children's home, each of the kids there has the opportunity to work on a livestock project over the summer and show it during fair season. Projects range from rabbits and chickens, up to bigger animals like steers.

Smylie said the kids spend a lot of time working with their animals at the 4H barn. Their mornings start at 6:30 and last until 11, and then they are back out there in the evening at 6 p.m. until their work is done.

"We raised threeof our own steers this year, and we wound up showing about 18 pigs - nine of them were ones that we raised. And then we do the same with the goats. We try to raise most of our own animals, and we get a lot of great donations in from people that would like us to show their animals so it's really great," Smylie said. "We get a lot of support from the community and people around the state."

During a normal year, any money kids at the children's home earn through the livestock sale would be put into a savings account that they receive when they turn 18 to help fund their future. This year the home is hoping to do the same with the premium checks the kids receive.