Youth make showing at livestock sale

PORTALES - With the fairground bleachers packed full of family and friends, buyers ready to make deals and the animals decorated with bows and sometimes glitter, the Roosevelt County Junior Livestock Sale made its return Friday after a one-year absence due to COVID-19.

The sale raised $157,100 between the 53 entries, but sale organizers still hadn't counted the "add-on" dollars that generally come in through unspent buyer money, community members or simply relatives who want to throw more into the pot. That amount tends to be in the neighborhood of $30,000 to $40,000.

With the fair canceled last year, the sale was handled with youth receiving a pool of donated money instead. The 2019 sale drew $131,550 between 60 animals.

The sale started with a big bid, as Kaia Quintana of the Baptist Children's Home 4-H club saw her grand champion steer go for $7,500.

Quintana's latest steer, Fred, went through a routine she's gotten down after taking care of about a half a dozen others during her nine years of showing at the fair.

Fred, named to go along with a fellow steer named Rick, got the daily bath, multiple daily feedings and a stop in an air-conditioned barn to help maintain his fluffy tan coat.

Quintana said the experience will be valuable for whatever occupation she picks after college, and the sale price will help her attend; she's looking at Angelo State, with New Mexico State as a possibility.

On the other side of the spectrum was Hannah Medina and her first-year feeder lamb, Cash.

"It was really fun," Medina, an eighth-grader at Clovis Christian, said of her first time at the sale.

Medina was happy to get a sale price of $3,000, but was hopeful the buyer might donate Cash back to her so she could spend a little more time and prep for 2022.

Cash was fitted with a bow and glitter all over, at the suggestion of friend and fellow Hustlers 4-H member Riley Howard. So in addition to learning the value of hard work, she learned the downside of glitter.

"It's everywhere," Medina said as the glitter sparkled on her pants, hands, face, etc.

Buyers, who pay well over the market rate as a charitable contribution to the young sellers, can either keep the animal, donate it back to the seller or let it go to market and pay the difference.

Although every kid knows the animal's eventual fate of going to the market from day one, the parting day is never easy.

"It's really sad," Quintana said. "I'm going to miss him the most. I've had a lot of steers, and I think he's been one of the best."