When COVID-19 hit, everyone was in a state of uncertainty. That especially included the youth and families who participate in livestock projects. Everyone did not know if they needed to go ahead and get animals or just skip this year completely. It was looking pretty discouraging at the start, but the light soon began to show through the tunnels as July approached. KDA was allowing their district shows to happen but with some rule changes and additional steps.

We began brain storming about our livestock show that is held in September. How were we going to have it? Would we have the sale? Would kids even participate? After weeks of discussion and thought, we decided to adopt all the KDA guidelines and add some more of our own. The school board approved our request, and the show was on!

This year, our numbers were down when compared to last year, but we knew this would happen, how could it not? With the year we have had up to this point, it had been completely crazy. We allowed 2 adults per child to be in attendance, there would be no meal and no sale. Our families were pretty shaken up by these changes but everyone finally settled down. We live streamed the event on the Robertson County Extension Facebook Page, so that those who could not attend were still able to watch it.

We collected donations that were split among the kids in order to replace the sale money. The kids were able to keep their animals, which usually does not happen.

The night of the show, everything went extremely smooth. All of the kids participated, everyone abided by the rules, and there were no arguments. We had several youth who were first time winners and we were able to enjoy the show without the stress of preparing food and getting ready for the auction.

All together, we had 17 4-H/FFA youth participate and 11 novice youth participate. Each child received over $400 from the donations, which is more than their animals may bring on a normal year.

This year has shown us that when life throws challenges our way, we must adapt. It would have been just as easy to cancel the show all together, but we wanted the kids to finish out their year strong. We had families thanking us for putting it on, kids thanking us, and community members thanking us. Yes, it has been a crazy year, but it was a year that we still had our livestock show and this show is crucial to the livestock program in Robertson County.