Months of hard work by area youth will culminate in Saturday’s Junior Livestock Sale. Members of Park County’s 4-H and FFA clubs will present their steers, hogs, lambs, goats or rabbits to a barnful of potential buyers.

Many local businesses and community members make a point of bidding at the sale, paying generous prices to support local youth. Last year, buyers paid over $632,000 for animals raised by 256 young people from across the county.

The sale runs for hours and many buyers “stayed right up to the last animal,” sale committee chairman Joe Bridges said last year.

Bridges expects a slightly smaller field of just under 250 kids will participate in the 2024 sale. As for the animals up for sale, “there will be more market hogs than any other species,” he said.

In a change from prior years, rabbits will be sold as a meat pen of three, rather than as individual animals. Each rabbit must weigh between 3.5 and 5.5 pounds and be of the same breed and variety, though they don’t have to come from the same litter.

Starting in 2025, rabbits in the sale will also need to come from a doe or does owned by the exhibitor. The sale committee initially proposed making that change for this year’s event, but delayed its implementation and made other modifications to the new rules following concerns from those involved in raising rabbits.

As for how this year’s Junior Livestock Sale will proceed, “the sale will run as it has in the past,” Bridges said. “The auction will be live bid only. However, if buyers cannot attend they can make arrangements to do absentee bids.”

Absentee bidding allows buyers of the livestock being shown to call in and place their bids on the animals instead of attending the auction in person if timing does not permit them to be at the auction in person. Those in need of that option should contact Bridges at 307-272-2324.

The Park County Junior Livestock Sale begins at 1 p.m. Saturday in the sale barn.