Hundreds of local agriculture students kick off Santa Barbara County Fair with start of junior livestock show
SANTA MARIA, Calif. - Hundreds of local agriculture students from Santa Barbara and San Luis Obispo counties helped kick off the 130th Annual Santa Barbara County Fair with the start of the Junior Livestock Show on Monday morning.
"I'm definitely really excited because fair week is a week to bond with my animals and my friends and it's overall just a fun experience," said Nipomo FFA student Lily Starr.
While the fair doesn't officially open to the public until Wednesday, July 12, the event is now essentially underway with the beginning of this longtime tradition.
The livestock show has long served as the backbone of the county fair, an event where local agricultural students show and auction a variety of animals they have raised over the past several months.
The Junior Livestock Show helps educate students on the value and importance of the agricultural industry, which is vital to the economic vitality of the Santa Maria Valley and surrounding areas.
they're learning through their projects will help them in their live, as young adults," said Santa Maria Fairpark Board of Directors member Randy Jones. "The Junior Livestock Auction is really what drives our fair here."
Last year marked the first in-person Junior Livestock Show in three years following the COVID-19 pandemic. As a result, the number of students and animals was down from previous years.
However this year, there has been a significant increase, returning to totals similar to pre-pandemic years.
"We have close to 1,000 exhibitors showing different kinds of livestock," said Jones. "It really is what brings the community together. It is the heart and soul of our fairgrounds."
On Monday, all students who are showing large size livestock had their animals weighed. It was a nerve-racking time for many students who brought animals that were in danger of not weighing enough to participate.
"It was very eventful," said Nipomo FFA student Eddie Hillier. "We have a bunch of animals here. We got weigh ins this morning. It was very scary. My pig almost didn't make weight, but she did make weight, which was good."
Tuesday will mark the beginning of the marketplace show for swine, sheep, goats and other small animals, while the beef showmanship will start later in the week.
"I'm looking forward to just getting to experience showmanship for the first time and my market class," said Nipomo FFA student Evie Watkins. "I'm looking forward to auction, and selling my steer, and going on the rides and everything."
The livestock show and auction culminates with the auction, which is scheduled for Friday and Saturday. Some students will take home several hundred dollars, while others may actually take home several thousands in profit.
"Other students might use it towards buying a car or buying next year's fair pig, but I think education is a really important part because there are kids that sometimes they aren't able to get a job, so raising a fair animal is very important if this is their only source of income."
In 2019, the last year the fair saw this amount of agricultural students pre-pandemic, the auction raised a combined total of about $2.2 million.
The 130th Annual Santa Barbara County Fair runs July 12-16. For more information, click here.
