Number of exhibitors, animals increase at Santa Maria County Fair junior livestock show

SANTA MARIA, Calif. – The number of local agricultural students and animals participating in this year's Santa Barbara County Fair are showing an increase this year from 2023 numbers.

"The fair has been awesome this year," said Santa Barbara County Fair Livestock Superintendent Hailey Rose Switzer. "We've seen a huge increase in the numbers that are here on grounds. Last year we had about 850 exhibitors that competed with us up there. And this year, we have over 1,000."

In addition, the number of total animals has also risen from the amount that took part in the 2023 fair.

"We have 4,000 entries here on ground, and that includes our showmanship, our costume contest, the market show, so over 4,000 entries altogether," said Switzer. "The actual animals on grounds we'll put about 1,200 animals through our livestock sales over this weekend."

As for what is helping drive the increases in exhibitors and animals this year, Switzer said a rules change has played a key role.

"We used to have an allotment program here in place that would limit how many animals each club could bring," said Switzer. "We did go ahead and remove the allotment program this year to kind of let students come back and show animals they wanted to show, and with that, we did see an increase in every species, as well as in our small animal area, and our overall exhibitor number is up this year."

Switzer also pointed out there has also been an increase in the number of registered buyers who are set to take park in the two-day auction that begins Friday morning.

"If we look at the point where we closed our sale last year, we had less active buyers than we do currently, and the sale hasn't even happened yet, so that's a great sign that we've got a lot of people involved in the community, with a lot of new buyers registering with us," said Switzer. "We have a lot of repeat buyers coming back and picking up their information in their packets and get ready for the weekend. It's awesome to see how much community involvement we have right now. We've got a lot of sponsors that have come back to the fairgrounds. We have a lot of buyers, new and old that are registered with us for this year's sale, so we're excited to see how the sales go this weekend for the kids." 

With the auction ready to start on Friday, Switzer indicated anyone who wishes to take part still has time to do so.

"We have three auctions," said Switzer. "Tomorrow we have our small animal auction at 9 a.m. We have our replacement hefer auction at 6 p.m., and then our our junior livestock, which is like our market hogs market steers, market sheep, goats, that is going to be Saturday at 8 a.m."

"They have mixed in some vendors here with with the food, to kind of mix things up a little bit," said vendor Michael Zude. "Over here in the grass area that they put up some vendors over there too, as well. next to the livestock. Having the food and the vendor combination, it's going to bring a good mix and hopefully the crowds."

One of the new highlights of the new-look fair is the addition of a new section called "La Placita," an Hispanic-themed entertainment area that is located next to the adult carnival area, where the old grandstand used to be.

"This is a nod to our Hispanic community," said Douglass. "You'll be able to get some some cool refreshments, and also, this is a great place to come and eat. We've got all of the different food vendors around. We've got picnic tables here for the whole community to just come and lounge and enjoy the free entertainment on the stage and also just kind of hang out. This is the hangout place."

The 131st Annual Santa Barbara County Fair runs from July 10-15.

Gates open at 3 p.m. on Thursday and Friday, and at noon on Friday through Sunday.

Closing time each night is at 10 p.m..

For more information about the Santa Barbara County Fair, click here for the official website.