Karen Gleason
The 80th Val Verde Livestock Show and Premium Auction got underway early Saturday at the Val Verde County Fairgrounds.
The feel of the annual show is the same as it has always been, but many changes were made in response to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.
Organizers, including County Extension Agent Emily Grant, set up a number safeguards to ensure the safety of adult volunteers, exhibitors and audience members.
“This year, what we’re doing differently is that we have COVID health and safety screening procedures in place for anyone who enters the show grounds, face coverings are required at all times for anyone on the show grounds, and we are limiting capacity by limiting the number of family members that exhibitors can bring along with them by using wristbands,” Grant said.
Exhibitors, volunteers and audience members entering the 4-H show barn were met at the entrance by screeners who took forehead temperatures. Each entrant also was asked to fill out a sheet acknowledging the screening procedure and providing the entrant’s name, address, telephone number and other contact information, which could be used to notify him or her in case COVID was later found in someone attending the event.
The cavernous 4-H barn was largely empty for the first show of the day on Saturday, the judging of market rabbits.
Typically on the day of the show, the show barn is packed with people, family members and friends sitting shoulder-to-shoulder on the bleachers and standing close together around the arena.
Grant said changes also were made to the 80th Annual Livestock Show schedule to further limit the number of people in the show barn at any given time.
“We’ve modified the schedule so that all the species show at different times, and there is no species overlap,” Grant said.
“Over the course of the next day, there will only be brief moments of hustle and bustle, as we get our exhibitors in, then things will slow down again,” she added.
Rabbits and breeding animals were shown Saturday, and market goats and market lambs will be shown Sunday.
