Despite rain, Bi-County Fair
deemed a success

ABOVE: Denton Scarbro and Courtney Spencer stand with their pigs before judging in the Bi-County Fair market pig show in Prewitt Saturday, August 30. Scrabro and Spencer won 2nd and 3rd place heavy crossbreed category. BELOW: Denton Scarbro looks at his ribbon Bi-County Fair in Prewitt Saturday, August 30. Scarbro's pig won Grand Champion for the fair. — © 2008 Gallup Independent / Cable Hoover

Copyright © 2008
Gallup Independent
By Jim Tiffin
Cibola County Bureau

PREWITT — If hard work and dedication to one’s avocation are barometers of success, then this year’s Cibola-McKinley Bi-County Fair was successful on all accounts.

About the same number of animals: pigs, steers, lambs and goats, were entered as last year, but one county cooperative extension agent said the quality of the competition was higher this year because the quality of the animals was higher.

“We have better animals this year, and that goes back to when the animals are picked in the spring,” Jimmy Plane, Cibola County Cooperative Extension agent said.

Some 4-H’ers ask for help when picking their animals, but not all, he said.

“Sometimes the kid sees an animal and that is the only one they want to work with,” he said.

Fair judge Mike Hanagan, a former cooperative extension agent and current FFA teacher at Artesia High school, agreed: “If the kids pick a good animal in the spring, by the time they reach the fair it shows.

“We’re not raising animals, we’re raising kids,” he said. “A lot of quality time is spent with these kids by their parents, working with them and in the pens with the animals together, prior to coming to the fair.”

Hanagan’s daughter, 9-year-old DeLaney, who is in a 4-H Club in Artesia, and who accompanied her father to the Bi-County Fair, said: “I wanted to see how things are done differently at other fairs than ours.”

Mike Hanagan said he thought the animals looked pretty good as a whole “and they had all the right attributes”

“I want the kids to understand that when I am judging, it is just my opinion, and not to take things personally,” he said.
Big winner

Courtney Spencer, 13, of the Trailblazers 4-H Club in Prewitt was the big winner this year. She walked away with the most major awards and a third and a fourth place. All animals through fourth place may be sold at the annual sale.

Fair rules requires that only two animals per 4-H member may be sent to the annual sale. The grand champion and reserve grand champion animals are required to be sold, and Courtney has one of each.

Courtney earned Grand Champion for her steer Franklin, a 1,385 pound Limousine and Black Angus crossbreed; Grand Champion for a breeding ewe; Reserve Grand Champion for her lamb: and top champion in showmanship for her steer and pig; a third place for her pig; and a fourth place for a second steer she showed, Douglas, a 1,387 pound cross like Franklin.

“I’m really pleased,” Courtney said, an understatement in the least.

She said she matured a lot this year and worked with her animals more than ever. It apparently showed in the ring.
“I am really happy for her, she really took it upon herself to go out and work with the animals this past year,” Lynda Spencer, Courtney’s mother said.

“I didn’t have to get after her to put on her boots and go to the barn every day,” she said laughing.

Courtney said she will use the money she receives from the sale to buy animals for next year’s fair, to buy feed and set some aside for college.

“I’m taking my second steer (Douglas) to the state fair,” she said.

Courtney’s younger sister, Kayla, a member of the Clover Buds (Boosters), which is a pre-4-H Club that prepares younger children for joining 4-H when they are 9 years old, showed a pig and won the showmanship award.

Sunday rain, flooding

Sunday afternoon, about 2 p.m., it started raising and the hills just west of the fairgrounds produced a slight flow of rainwater that flooded the fairgrounds.

“We had about an inch of standing water in the parking lot and in the pens with the animals,” fair volunteer Tina Robinson said.

“The water didn’t really affect much, the sale went on in the show barn without a hitch and we just dealt with it,” she said.

Fair Board President Dee Anne Leyba said planning for next year’s fair has already started.

“We have been taking notes and watching things closely this year, we are looking at doing some things bigger and better next year,” she said.

“Next year is the 40th anniversary of the fair,” she said.

Denton Scarbro, 16, a junior at Grants High school and a member of a 4-H Club in Cibola County, took Grand Champion pig and several first places in the Indoor 4-H exhibits, a second place with a pig and second with his steer.

“When asked what he has done differently to work his animals in the show ring, he said he worked with them a little more and changed the type of feed they receive.

Leyba said with the exception of the rain, which mainly caused lots of sticky mud but no major problems, this was the best fair in the three years she has been president of the fair board.

“There were no major problems, only small ones, things went very, very well and we had a successful sale,” she said.

Last year’s sale totaled about $140,000 for the 4-H youth, but that was an anomaly, she said.

“This year’s preliminary figures are $104,000, which is about normal for the kids,” she said.

Fair information: (505) 863-3432.
On the Net: http://bi-countyfair.com/