PENDLETON, Ore. — In all of Dusty Shelden’s years of showing livestock for 4-H — as a youth, parent and club leader — the 2020 season was unlike any other.
“I figured that we’d come up with something. There’s always a way to do something.”
In early March, Shelden was preparing his 4-H Foggy Mountain Livestock Club in Pendleton for its usual circuit of annual livestock events: the Milton-Freewater Junior Show in May, the Eastern Oregon Livestock Show in June and, eventually, the Umatilla County Fair in August.
Then came the COVID-19 pandemic — and an end to normalcy.
“We’d already had quite a few meetings before everything shut down,” Shelden said. “I prepared the kids for the worst, but I tried to keep their spirits up.”
In the back of his mind, Shelden feared 2020 would be a lost year for 4-H youth livestock shows. But another part of him had faith in the program’s resilience.
“I figured that we’d come up with something,” Shelden said. “There’s always a way to do something.”
Following a cascade of in-person cancellations in April and May, at least six annual livestock shows and county fairs adapted to allow 4-H youths to show their animals. Some went virtual, using video clips and videoconferencing for showmanship and software for auctions. Others, like the Jackson County Lamb Fair, held in-person events with strict safety protocols.
A new way to show
Shelden, 44, grew up in Oregon 4-H, showing cattle and sheep on his family’s ranch in La Grande. For the Milton-Freewater and Eastern Oregon shows, he used his smartphone to record video of his son and daughter showing their Boer goats.
“It worked out OK,” Shelden said. “It was an opportunity to try something new. It took a lot of time, though. I don’t know how many videos we recorded. The one time the animal did what it was supposed to do, you forgot to hit record. Or the dog runs through the picture.”
An educational process for families
Carole Smith, 4-H educator in Union County — and Shelden’s mother — received similar feedback from other families. For years, she and Honour Bowen, Union County’s 4-H educational program assistant, have organized youth showmanship and auctions at the Eastern Oregon Livestock Show in Union.
Billed as the “oldest show in the Northwest,” the event typically draws 500 to 600 4-H and FFA exhibitors from across the state.
When the show’s board canceled the in-person event, they gave Smith and Bowen the go-ahead to find an alternative so youths could still participate and sell their animals.
“We didn’t know how we were going to do it,” Smith said. “We were just going to do it.”
“We didn’t know how we were going to do it. We were just going to do it.”
They contracted with a company already offering virtual livestock shows. Participants submitted 90-second video clips — not professionally produced — of their market or breeding animals for judging.
“We had a demo video showing how you should move your animal around,” Smith said. “This was an educational process for the kids. They had to work with their animals to make a good video. I would say they spent more time working with their animals than if they did it in person.”
For the online auction, exhibitors submitted a photo with their animal. A live auctioneer accepted bids from participants registered online.
Smith worried the new format would reduce sale prices. Instead, they set records for average prices per animal and by species.
“It was fun,” she said. “I could see that this could be a wave of the future. Even in a normal year, we can give people the opportunity to watch and bid online. We had buyers you don’t usually see. You could watch it from home or be out fishing.”
Still, she acknowledged the challenges of adapting long-standing routines.
“I’ve done this for 22 years, so you get into a routine,” Smith said. “Anything that’s routine is easier to do. Everything we did this year was new and different, which makes it challenging. Plus, we’re working from home. Honour and I worked closely together but we’re not together. It’s kind of like not having your dance partner. There’s a challenge mentally and emotionally. We didn’t know what we didn’t know.”
Planning an in-person event in Southern Oregon
Meanwhile, in Southern Oregon, organizers of the Jackson County Lamb Fair also stepped into unfamiliar territory. After months of planning, they held an in-person show at the Jackson County Fairgrounds in late June — with major adjustments.
“We started planning for this event back in April,” said Lena Hosking, 4-H coordinator in Jackson County. “We had different plans for each phase. We focused on the ‘three S’s: safety, keep it simple and sell those animals.”
Hosking said her goal was to give members, parents, leaders and the community a sense of normalcy and purpose.
“It wasn’t our normal show, but the process of getting your animal washed, clipped and showmanship-ready was almost the same,” she said. “We also had to make hard decisions. We couldn’t offer all the classes we normally do. The public and siblings couldn’t attend. 4-H staff and FFA advisors had to plan for everyone’s safety.”
A carefully coordinated event
For the first time, lambs went home after the vet check and weigh-in — no overnight stays. Families received assigned arrival times and waited in their vehicles until called to check in. Each exhibitor was allowed only two accompanying adults.
Face coverings were encouraged, and nearly everyone complied. Chalk lines marked six-foot distances in the staging area, and the event hired social distancing monitors.
“We had to figure out how to smoothly move people through the fairgrounds,” Hosking said. “To make sure we had clear communications, we sent a map to all of our families and leaders. It was a very orchestrated dance. We were very firm that if they were late, there were no make-ups. Not one kid missed their class. It all worked out beautifully.”
One popular feature was the livestream — the show was broadcast live on YouTube, and some families watched from the parking lot.
Of the 207 lambs tagged in March, 157 were shown — and all were sold in an online auction.
“Families were concerned about the prices,” Hosking said, “but the average sale per lamb was $1,200, which was fantastic. We then planned and offered modified in-person shows for all of our project areas, from photography to horses. It took a lot of coordination to pull it all off. If you could see those kids’ faces, it was totally worth it.”
Previously titled Extension 4-H livestock shows adapt to restrictions, deliver for youth
