The Hill County Fair continues at the Hillsboro fairgrounds this week and will wrap up with the annual auctions, which support the youth who participate in the fair.
The fair kicked off Sunday with arrival of creative arts and agricultural mechanics projects, and livestock started moving in Monday.
Wednesday morning, January 15, the swine shows start at 8 a.m. Check-in for the broiler show starts at 2:30 p.m., and the show starts at 3 p.m. The creative arts division will continue to be open to the public Wednesday, and the barn will open for optional cattle move-in from 6 to 10 p.m. that evening.
The barn will open for cattle arrival at 4:30 a.m. Thursday, January 16, and all cattle should be in place for steer weigh-in and heifer check-in at 8 a.m. The heifer and steer shows begin at 9:30 a.m. Thursday. The creative arts division will be open to the public throughout the day Thursday.
Horses should be in place and checked in at 8 a.m. Friday, January 17, and the horse show will begin at 9 a.m.
The Creative Arts Sale of Champions begins at 6:30 p.m. Friday. All first-place creative arts entries will automatically be entered into the auction. Exhibitors with more than one first-place entry will be contacted for more information.
Ribbon pickup for creative arts winners will be Wednesday and Thursday from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. and Friday during the auction. Any ribbons and prize money mailed at the conclusion of the fair will cost $1.
Art, craft and textile items will be released and available for pickup beginning at 9 a.m. Thursday. Items not picked up will be disposed of after the fair. Food and photography entries are the property of the fair and will not be returned.
Youth selling in the creative arts auction need to check in at 6 p.m. prior to Friday’s auction. Grand champions and their buyers will have their photo taken after the last grand champion item sells in the auction, and reserve champion winners and buyers will have a photo taken after the last reserve auction items sell.
The Livestock Show Sale of Champions will be at 12:30 p.m. Saturday, January 18.
All overall grand and reserve grand champion market animals will be included in the livestock auction. If an exhibitor has both the overall grand and reserve grand champion market animal in a single species, both will be eligible for the auction.
All market animals will be sold according to placing in the following order: overall grand champions, overall reserve champions, division champions, division reserve champions and placing animals – light, medium, heavy or in placing order.
All sale lots will rotate in the following order: steers, lambs, goats, swine, broilers, rabbits and commercial steers.
No animal will sell for more than the overall grand or reserve champion of that species.
Each exhibitor must be present in the sale ring when the animal is sold. Substitutions are only allowed for participation in other school-sponsored activities or a doctor’s excuse.
For those who want to support students after the auctions, add-ons will be open online from January 14-28. See hillcountyfair.org for more details.
The Hill County Fair Board scholarship meal will be held from 11:30 to 1 p.m. Saturday and is open to the public.
New this year, the Hill County Fair will be livestreamed via Facebook Live and Restream. Visit Hill County Fair on Facebook for daily links to the stream.
The Commercial Steer Show associated with the fair was rescheduled due to the possibility of inclement weather last week. It was originally set to take place Friday, January 10, at the Hubbard Sale Barn but was rescheduled for Friday, January 17, at 9:30 a.m.
The Commercial Steer Show highlights the commercial cattle industry and provides 4-H and FFA members an opportunity to learn about selection, record keeping, feeding, animal health, industry standards, public speaking and technical knowledge.
For more information, visit hillcountyfair.org.
The Lakelander 