The sounds of auctioneer yells and audience participation could be heard inside the Memorial Coliseum on Saturday during the junior livestock sale at San Juan County Fair.
The sale put student showmanship on display as buyers from families and companies made bids to show their support of the work put into their livestock.
Before the auction began, students who are entering their senior year or who had recently graduated were recognized for their service to 4H or FFA.
Starting the auction were the animals that placed as grand champion or reserve grand champion in their categories, including market turkey, market beef, market lamb and market goat.
Josiah Keating, of Clever Clovers 4H, brought his grand champion market swine into the show ring, weighing 247 pounds. It was bought for $11,000 by FHI.
Claudia Preator, of La Plata Blue Ribbon 4H, sold her 1,212 pound grand champion market steer for $15.50 a pound to RJ Energy.
Further into the auction, Bralylon Frazier, of Shiprock 4H, walked away selling his 1,084-pound market beef at $20 a pound to FHI.
Dylan Thompson, of Aztec FFA, also sold his market beef for $20 a pound to FHI. The steer weighed 1,328 pounds and is a class champion.
Jeremy Foster, FHI chief operation officer and bidder, said the company has supported the auction for four years and has always looked for the showmanship and dedication in the kids when deciding to bid.
“All summer long, or all year long, whether it’s steers, goats, sheep – doesn’t matter, they have a job everyday,” he said. “They gotta wake up, they learn responsibilities, budgeting. So us coming out here and supporting this is just a way of trying to reward them.”
The largest steer purchased that night was 1,602 pounds and entered the ring with Maximus Stock, of Levi & Calico 4H, who sold it for $7 a pound to Lucille Jones. Jones would only bid for 1,300 pounds.
In the market lamb and goat categories, the highest bids included $5,750 by C&J Manufacturing for a 68-pound Division 2 champion goat from Eva Williams, of Los Rancheros 4H, and $4,500 by San Juan Regional for a 138-pound market lamb, entered by Jaxon Warren of Kirtland FFA.
Roots Home Healthcare placed several bids that afternoon including $3,900 for a 208-pound market swine from Kassidy Garcia, of Kirtland FFA, and $4,000 for a 53-pound market goat from Abigail Arviso, of Dreamweavers 4H.
Tom Nystrom, owner of Roots Home Healthcare, said the bids made that day were all is support of the students.
“You don’t pay three times market price, 200 times market price, for an animal because you want the animal – you’re not doing it for the meat, you’re helping the kids out,” he said.
In conversations with other bidders, Nystrom said that often times the animals are donated or butchered, with the meat being distributed to employees.
For members of the Nystrom family, who have been buyers for over seven years, the livestock auction has sentimental value with it being a source of income historically.
“I raised my kids in 4H, and we didn’t have a lot of means at that time,” said Nystrom. “It’s just a fairly high-paying sale for a lot.”
Now as a bidder, he said he also will pay for livestock from those students involved with Shiprock or Kirtland clubs because of the connections he has made with those families.
A student that day, according to Nystrom, had recently loss their father in the previous year, and that was a family he wanted to support in sales.
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