Youth Livestock Show, sale set for Saturday with physical distancing guidelines in place; Auction starts at 6 p.m.

Monica Zalaznik
July 31, 2020

BUCKHANNON – The Upshur County Youth Livestock Show and Sale will operate under social distancing guidelines this Saturday, Aug. 1.

The President of the UCYLA Board Aaron Harris said the showmanship portion of the show and sale would be virtual this year, with participants recording a video and sending it in for the judges to evaluate. The showcase portion was required for participants to take part in the show and sale Aug. 1.

The Show and Sale will take place at the Buckhannon Stockyards, where judges will sift projects for placings, with no participants or parents present at 10 a.m. to 1 p.m. The auction will start at 6 p.m. in the stockyards, with buyers in the stands and no parents or participants in the stands to encourage social distancing, and masks will be worn.

“The money is for the kids, and depending on the species of animals, some projects are for a year or possibly a little over a year, and the kids have been working with their animals all summer raising these animals,” Harris said. “They’ve put their own money into these animals and when we sell them, the money goes back to the kids, and they use that money to buy future projects and then also a lot of kids are saving college funds.”

About 40 4-H and FFA members are participating in the sale from ages eight to 21.

“Anybody can start raising projects and take part — they just need to be a member of 4-H or FFA,” Harris said. “If kids do not live on a farm and they can’t raise a hog or raise a steer, we still have smaller projects that they can have like chickens, and they’ll get the eggs and the eggs get judged and kids can sell the eggs. They can raise rabbits, and we also have hunting projects as well.”

Harris said the UCYLA teaches participants lessons they might not learn in a traditional classroom.

“I was a product of the program years ago, and it really teaches you responsibility and lifelong skills, such as how to do a business transaction, how to raise the project and how to sell the project,” Harris said. “The kids can decide if agriculture is a way of life that they choose to do after they do the project. It teaches them about dollars, pennies and cents and how to take care of that project.”