Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Serving Clovis, Portales and the Surrounding Communities
Reagan Wilhelm of Texico escorts her grand champion steer, Buddy, to open the Curry County Junior Livestock Sale Friday night. Wilheim, who will be a sixth-grader at Texico this year, sold her steer for $5,000.
CLOVIS - The sights and the sounds of the Curry County Fair were back, right up to the carnival lights and the rainstorms that seem to RSVP for mid-August at the county fairgrounds.
The staple was back as well Friday in the Curry County Events Center, as county youth saw their year of raising animals pay off at the junior livestock sale.
The 2021 sale, when all was said and done, raised $390,000 between 89 animals who made their way in and out of the show pen on the east side of the event floor. The 2019 sale, the last sale affiliated with the fair, raised around $300,000.
The buyers, a collection of individuals, buyers' clubs and local businesses, had three options. They could either take the animal they purchased, give it to market and pay the difference between the bid and the animal's market value or pay the entire bill and donate the animal to the Boy's and Girl's Ranch. Eleven buyers went with the latter.
Auctioneer Shane Hall of Roswell bantered with the crowd and the children, imploring, "you can do better than that," while he repeated the current bid - "4250 now 4250 now 4250 now 5?"
The cash started flowing after Reagan Wilhelm's grand champion steer went up for auction. "I just sold that steer for $5,000," Hall said to mark the end of Wilheim's care of Buddy.
Wilhelm, who has raised a steer in each of the last four years, said she's comfortable with the process.
She'd be up at 5:30 every morning to feed Buddy and would often care for him much of the day. Daily activities included a quarter-mile walk up to the road and back and a bath to mark the end of the day.
"It was fun," Wilhelm said. "I had a great time doing it."
As the sale went on, the rest of the events center had the familiar sights and sounds. Behind the sales area laid dozens of pens where the animals either waited for or rested from their time in the spotlight. In the middle of the floor was the complimentary barbecue dinner that preceded the sale. On the floor's east side, many of the children waiting to show their animal passed the time by playing football and reminding themselves cowboy boots make chasing a long bomb difficult.
The 2020 livestock sale was organized as a private event by community members when the COVID-19 pandemic forced cancellation of the fair. Organizers reported raising $400,000 at that event.
Wilhelm appreciated last year's show given the circumstances, but said she much preferred a return to the traditional format.
