PUEBLO, Colo. (KOAA) — Thousands of livestock entries from Colorado's 4-H and FFA members were narrowed down to just 94 of the finest animals for the Colorado State Fair's Junior Livestock Auction on Tuesday.
The auction features finalists and winners from county fairs across the state, the best of the best. Before the bidding began, exhibitors spent one last afternoon with their animals in the livestock barn.
For Grand Drive 4-H member Cole Spurlock, that time with his goat, Dre, has been a labor of love.
"I've been caring for Dre since March," Spurlock said.
Watch Owen Skornik-Hayes' full report in the video player below:
Caring for Dre, and the roughly 20 to 25 animals Spurlock raises each year, means early mornings, late nights, and a lot of work.
"That's starting at 5 a.m. most mornings, getting down to the barn," Spurlock said. "Barn checks is the first thing we do, and then we'll go and start making feed, and we're redoing waters."
Hair care, exercise, showmanship, and training all go into preparing the animals for the show ring. But after all that time together, auction day can be bittersweet.
"It's definitely bittersweet, definitely this one because he has a tie to the same breeder, and it's a tie because his brother was a class winner at Denver and made a sale there," Spurlock said.
Spurlock's goat sold for $2,000, and he was named the Colorado state premier goat exhibitor for the 2nd year in a row.
For buyers, the auction is a chance to support young exhibitors. For the kids, it is about much more than raising an animal.
"When we buy an animal, we have to save enough money to buy the animal first of all and then just the budgeting, the record keeping of all the animals, the leadership, the communication between the breeders, the people at the shows, all those things, so it ties into a lot of what we learn in life,” said Spurlock.
Budgeting, communication, leadership, and responsibility are a big part of what the Junior Livestock Program is all about.
Continuing a legacy of agriculture in Colorado.
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Video appears to show CSPD officer asleep in patrol car while on the job
A video that is getting attention on social media appears to show an officer with the Colorado Springs Police Department asleep in his patrol car on the job.
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