When Lenoir County’s Cooperative Extension barn burned 40 years ago, it didn’t stop the area’s livestock tradition.
The rising price of animal feed also didn’t impede on the state’s Southeastern custom.
The show must go on.
Lenoir County will host the 73rd Annual Coastal Plains Livestock Show and Sale starting Monday at 11 a.m. Always held after Easter Sunday, the two-day event will feature 115 participants no older than 21 from 11 southeastern North Carolina counties showing project animals they’ve been working with since January.
They have raised and prepared goats, lamb and hogs — among others — to be judged and will be scored from the animal’s ability to bond in a herd to overall showmanship.
“It’s a learning experience for them,” said Eve Huneycutt, a livestock agent for Lenoir and Greene counties. “They’re learning how to take care of their animals and also learning the value of them.”
A sale associated with the show will price the animals. Interested buyers can purchase a deck — all animals of one species — at the show.
The livestock show is free to spectators. Huneycutt said up to 300 people aside from the participants are expected — mostly made up of proud parents and grandparents.
Before the show, the extension office hosted various agriculture and livestock activities for children.
“We work with them throughout the year,” Huneycutt said. “Whatever their interest is in agriculture, we can kind of help them foster that interest.”
The show is an activity that focuses on the presentation and marketing of the animals. The breeding livestock are taken back to farms afterwards, while the market ones will be sold to harvest.
“It’s really a very real-world experience that keeps (children) well grounded,” Huneycutt said. “It teaches them responsibility to take care of something else as well as taking that animal all the way to market and learning where their food comes from.”
Although a learning process for the youth, Huneycutt said since the price to feed the animals has skyrocketed over the past few years, it creates a difficulty for kids who can’t afford it and limits larger animals in the show.
“The price of a bag of feed has doubled over the past five years,” said Huneycutt, who added the market price doesn’t match up with the cost to feed livestock. “It’s really gotten incredibly more expensive just to raise the animals.”
Some local farmers let children show their animals, giving the interested kids an opportunity to participate in a unique activity.
“They’re not finding any sort of project that is going to really introduce them to the way the world works like an animal project will,” Huneycutt said of the participants. “You won’t find any kids more grounded in life than the kids that are showing these animals.”
Jessika Morgan can be reached at 252-559-1078 or at jessika.morgan@kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @JessikaMorgan.
73rd Annual Coastal Plains Livestock Show
- Monday and Tuesday
- 11 a.m.
- Lenoir County Livestock Arena
- 1791 N.C. 11 S
- Free Admission
For more information, contact the Lenoir County Cooperative Extension at 252-527-2191.