This year’s 4-H and FFA students participating in the Junior Livestock Sale had to put in a little extra work to get their animals through some tough weather.

Joe Bridges, chairman of the sale committee, said the committee is optimistic about the sale, which is expected to see roughly 220-230 head of livestock.

Bridges acknowledged the hard work of the young sellers who worked against less than ideal conditions to prepare their animals.

“A lot of kids have just absolutely had to go through a lot of turmoil with their animals to get them here,” Bridges said.

It was hard to keep animals healthy during a cold and wet spring, Bridges said, and these factors contributed to different health issues. Some animals were even lost this season. Bridges said it's “extremely unfortunate; it is a mother nature thing.”

As far as dollar figures go, Bridges expects strong sale numbers this year, although he does expect an adjustment compared to the previous two years.

“2021 was the largest sale that I had been involved with in all my years,” Bridges said. 

In 2021, sales totaled $645,536 and in 2022 sales totaled $618,536. Bridges doesn’t expect this year’s sales to meet those astronomical standards and instead expects earnings to be in the more typical average of $220,000-$225,000. For prices on the livestock, Bridges said they are expecting similar prices to last year if not slightly better.

This year Bridges added that while unusual, the number of steers for sale has gone up and the number of pigs for sale has gone down. He said the number of goats and lambs has stayed relatively steady with only small variations.

Bridges explained that it’s unusual for steers to increase in numbers due to the amount of time and money required. Some kids have even had their steers since September of last year, he said. Pigs are typically a go-to for the sale but Bridges said there weren’t as many available to purchase. He said this could be due to a variety of factors including high temperatures during breeding season that affected conception rate and smaller litters.

As far as other changes to this year’s sale, Bridges said there will not be online bidding this year, but they will still do add-ons through the online portal. 

“Typically, ever since I’ve been here, we’ve always talked about … the things we’ve added, we’ve actually subtracted something this year.”

Add-ons allow people to contribute money to a youth’s animal even if they are unable to purchase the whole animal. This way family and community members can still support the community's youth who are able to see who contributed with an add-on, Bridges said, and they are occasionally used by businesses who have not yet met their budget for the sale.

When all is said and done purchasers will be able to take their meat to get processed with the processor of their choice. He said Roger’s Meat has “graciously kept all their dates open in August,” for the Junior Livestock Sale.

“It’s a huge, huge thing that Roger’s has done. It's kind of unheard of … kudos to Jose and his family for letting us do that,” Bridges said.

Bridges said another processor that works with the sale to accommodate buyers is Idaho’s Matt’s Meats, who will receive the meat from the sales board, process it and deliver it for pick up at Fremont Motors in Cody. 

Bridges also thanked Andrew Mehling and Jennifer Tripplett who he said work year round to make the sale possible — putting in thousands of hours of work between them.