Rabbit shows, rooster-crowing contests, the crowning of the county’s best apple pie maker. All this and more came to a conclusion on Sunday.
The 2019 La Plata County Fair came to an end with clanging of calves driving kids into railing at the annual 4-H and FFA Catch-It Contest in the covered arena.
“I grabbed it by the neck, but then I got trampled,” said 12-year-old Cole Pontine of Durango, who came out of his bout with the calves bleeding from his forearm. No doubt the trampling, from a calf that was probably four times his weight, will leave behind a pretty good bruise that will remind Cole of his encounter with bovine beasts for at least a couple of weeks
Cole’s sister, Kylee, 14, also participated in the effort to pen the calves.
“It was pretty rough,” she said of her experience. “They definitely looked a lot bigger when we were trying to catch them then when they came out of the trailer.”
Saturday evening’s Junior Livestock Sale brought in $276,913, said Emile Meisner, a member of the La Plata County Fair’s board of directors. More money will come in throughout the week as visitors who have toured animal pens offer add-ons to the final sale price of the animals.
“We had a great fair and the sale was amazing. We can’t thank our sponsors and our buyers enough,” Meisner said.
4-Hers and FFA participants with grand champions were:
Mackenzie Swanemyr, beef, purchased by Crossfire Inc. for $9,323.50.Carter Neiman, goat, purchased by Southwest Ag for $1,460.Maryann Fassett, sheep, purchased by Crossfire Aggregate for $1,984.Cooper Hanhardt, swine, purchased by Energy Inspections Service for $4,163.25.In total, 109 children participated in the livestock sale and they sold 19 sheep, 10 goats, 44 pigs, 21 head of beef, six rabbits and 21 chickens.
Besides the sale of livestock, the Junior Livestock Sale also included sale of grand champions in the cake and cookie contests as well as grand champions in the leathercraft, welding and woodworking contests.
As the fair wound down, Cathy Duggan of Bayfield talked about the details of her small wall quilt that was named grand champion in its category.
Duggan was a professional seamstress who began quilting 15 years ago.
Her award-winning quilt began with a picture she saw.
“I found a pattern, and I had to make it. Some things grab us,” Duggan said.
parmijo@durangoherald.com
