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MANSFIELD — Persistence paid off for 16-year-old Shelby Bays on Saturday.
The Crestview High School student set a new personal best at the Richland County Fair this week with her reserve champion market lamb.
“I’ve had the top three through eight, but I’ve never had grand or reserve,” said Bays, who has been showing animals since she was 5 years old.
“It felt very nice because last the two years were kind of my off years, and just knowing that I came back full force is really nice.”
Bays’ reserve champion lamb sold for $2,000 during Saturday’s junior livestock auction at the Richland County Fair.
Shelby showed two lambs alongside her brother Bryson and a tight-knit community of exhibitors and their families.
“We’re blessed to have awesome people around us that really, truly care about our kids and the success that (have),” their mother Amy said.
Both Amy and Shelby were blinking back tears after the sale.
“You put so much into it, and it’s year-round,” Amy said. “They’re like athletes. I tease that sometimes (the animals) get fed and washed better than my own kids do.”
Makenzie Spoerr, also a member of the Next Generation 4-H Club and Crestview FFA, also compared showing animals to athletics.
“It’s like playing a sport. You’re competing against other people, so that’s what I enjoy about it,” the 18-year-old said. “If you put in more effort and you put in the time, eventually your results are going to show.”
For fair competitors, training comes in the form of early morning feedings, late-night baths and walking animals to get them in shape.
Spoerr alternated walking her goat Max outside and on a treadmill.
“That helps with his back end,” she explained.
Buyers make record-setting bids for calves and dairy steers
Saturday’s sale raised hundreds of thousands of dollars for local youth.
Auctioneers charmed and cajoled local businesses and buyers clubs, securing record-breaking bids in three categories.
Colonel Crawford’s Kameron Cox sold his seventh-place dairy feeder calf for a record-setting $3,100. Crestview’s Weston Grauer earned a whopping $7,100 for his market beef feeder calf.
Adalie Miller of Shelby also made fair history, collecting $5,300 for her market dairy steer.
Some kids said they plan to save their earnings for college. Others will reinvest the funds into more animals and supplies for next year’s fair.
Ten-year-old Whitley Lambert, who showed this year’s reserve champion and third-place market dairy goats, had something more fun in mind.
When asked what his plans were for his earnings, he didn’t hesitate.
“I’m going to buy all kinds of LEGOs.”
