In the heart of the Thurston County Fairgrounds in Lacey, 108 local students auctioned 135 animals during the Thurston County Youth Market Animal Sale Saturday on the third day of the four-day fair.
Future Farmers of America (FFA) and 4-H students from 14 organizations showed off lambs, rabbits, hogs, goats, chickens, turkeys and steers during the sale that exceeded three hours and concluded after the sunset. Buyers from farms and businesses around the state bid on livestock with a per-pound cost in the fast-paced event.
The livestock sale brought out students of varying experience levels, with some sellers like Baylee Ahrens of Tenino FFA wrapping up their fourth fair, while others like Felicity McKitrick of Rainier FFA raised and showed animals for the first time.
Ahrens, who is entering her senior year at Tenino High School, raised a 1,700-pound steer named Orange Dot as well as a lamb. The 2025 sale marked her fourth with lambs and her first with a steer.
“My family has always raised steers commercially for meat for our freezer, and I decided I wanted to take it one step further and raise one for the fair,” Ahrens said. “It’s a little bit more competitive with the steers, especially at this fair, than the sheep are. I love the competitiveness.”
Ahrens certainly had a competitive edge as her steer, named for the dot placed on his head to tell him apart from another cow, was the heaviest animal of the 135 sold Saturday evening. This year, she took home reserve grand champion honors during Friday’s showmanship round for her 138-pound lamb and a blue ribbon for her steer.
Fellow Tenino FFA member Holly Lugenbeel, an incoming junior, showed a lamb named Smokey that she has had for two months and got when he was four or five months old. She said it took about two weeks for Smokey to trust her while raising him, but she grew a special bond with him.
“He’s the sweetest lamb I’ve had. He is the best animal I’ve had,” Lugenbeel said. “I try not to bond with market animals because I know they’re gonna go, but I really bonded with him.”
McKitrick, an incoming Rainier High School junior, has been with the Rainier FFA chapter for two years but showed and raised livestock for the first time this year. Her 280-pound hog, Bossy, sold for $7.25 per pound when she only needed $2.55 to break even. McKitrick also earned a grand champion ribbon for the novice class in showmanship on Friday.
“I almost started crying,” she said of the honor. “It’s really about getting a close bond with her so she knows she can trust you. That’s the most important part.”
McKitrick joined Rainier FFA as she has always been around animals while growing up on a small farm, where her father also raised pigs. Through her involvement with the FFA chapter and service as a reporter, she said she has grown more motivated in everything she does while meeting new people and animals, like Bossy.
“I’ve always played basketball my whole life, but I never thought I was going to end up raising pigs later on,” she said. “I’ve never been such a big animal person until I joined. The community is amazing.”
Rayanna Wisner, an incoming junior at Rainier High School, completed her third trip to the Thurston County Youth Market Animal Sale and sold her 1,240-pound steer Stanley for $4 per pound. She credited her involvement in FFA for improving her confidence in showmanship.
“When I first started showing, I was really shy. I didn’t really know what to do,” Wisner said. “But now, I feel like I’m a lot more confident with the way I can talk to people, the way I can perform and show.”
The routine of raising and caring for a steer of Stanley’s size is a grind, Wisner said. She gets up at 5:30 a.m. every morning and feeds the 18-month old steer, gives him water and grooms him. She washes Stanley two or three times per week, and he enjoys going for walks in the pasture. During the showmanship round on Friday, Wisner took home grand champion honors in the junior showman class for the second year in a row.
“I’m super proud of myself for it. Stanley was really well behaved when I was showing,” she said. “Each year, you have lots of room for improvement, and I just keep improving. I’m dedicated, and I’ve put the work in to get where I am.”
Lizeth Venegas, an incoming Rochester High School senior, sold a pig named Esteban and a lamb named Smurf during the auction, and she won reserve grand champion honors for both animals on Friday. In her first year with FFA, she decided to join to spend more time with a friend and to try something new, but so far, she has learned lessons in consistency.
“With showing your animals, you really don’t go anywhere unless you’re very consistent with them. That’s how I managed to build up a strong bond with my animals, especially my lamb,” Venegas said. “They always say that showmanship is a team effort, not just your effort. I feel like my lamb and I really did well on that.”
Joseph Winther, a 12-year-old Bush Middle School student from Tumwater, represented Black Sheep 4-H by selling a hog and a goat Saturday evening. He started showing at just 9 years old and enjoys socializing with fellow students, but he said the biggest lesson he’s learned so far is not one of work ethic or caring for animals.
“I’ve mostly learned that animals can put you in some crippling debt,” Winther said.
