This year’s Bell County Youth Fair and Livestock Show will begin 9 a.m. Saturday with a horse show. An appreciation supper and dance for all youth participants in the fair is scheduled for 6:30 that evening.
Fair Secretary Pam Reavis with the Bell County Extension Office said this year there are more than 3,100 entries in the Family and Consumer Sciences Division and more than 2,700 livestock entries.
The awards and auction sale is on the final day of the fair, which is Saturday, Feb. 9. The culmination of the week’s event is the auction of the Grand Champion Market Steer.
For the past two years 14-year-old Parker Davis of Troy has had the grand champion steer. Ms. Reavis confirmed that Parker is registered again this year and will try for a three-peat.
Parker made a total of $24,837 off the two steers.
“We spent a lot of time looking for the best animals you can find,” said Mitchel Davis, Parker’s father. “It takes proper feeding and hard work and you’ve got to practice showmanship.
“We put the money toward his college education fund,” he said. “It’s one of the best extracurricular teaching tools that kids have an opportunity to go through. The combination of hard work and animal husbandry starts early in the year. We’re looking for next year’s livestock right now. It’s not like a one- or two-month project.”
Last year Bruggman Homes and Gen-ko Quality Cabinets combined to bid $10,328 for Parker’s 1,291-pound steer. In addition Parker also won the meat goat competition last year, Ms. Reavis said.
The money that students bring in at the auction often goes toward paying for college, Ms. Reavis said.
The local fair started in the mid-1950s and for many years was at the Ag barn on the Temple High School campus.
For the past 20 years, the fair has been at the Expo Center, which was built to house the fair.
Volunteers are the lifeblood of the fair and come from every town in the county to help out, Ms. Reavis said.
Some of this year’s participants represent the third and fourth generations of a family to put together a project for the Bell County fair.
