Youth participation at this year’s Safford Poultry Show reportedly was the best in the more than three-decade history of the show.
Of the some 40 exhibitors at the Graham County Fairground on Saturday, about half were kids.
The Safford Show is organized by the Gila Valley Poultry Association. Exhibition poultry takes center stage, showcasing various breeds and colors according to the standards set by the American Poultry Association. From hefty poultry weighing up to 50 pounds to petite bantam chickens that can fit in the palm of one’s hand, the event encompasses a diverse range of poultry.
Shane Hawkins, superintendent of the show, said the show was well attended, with a fair number of birds shown. It wasn’t the biggest showing ever, but considering that the show had to be canceled last year due to the bird flu, the organizers were happy with the turnout.
Hawkins said he was particularly happy to see such a boom of youth participation.
“We have more youth than I can remember,” he said. “I know in Arizona there’s been an uptick in youth activities in at the 4-H level, and that’s really gotten people involved, and there’s a lot of 4-H from Tucson today. There’s a lot of them there, and they’re really out and a part of the program. And poultry, they’re just starting to get into it. We have quite a few kids doing showmanship.”
The youngest groups of children lined up their birds on a table Saturday morning at the fairgrounds and answered the judge’s questions. The show birds, varying in size and colors, stayed put and were incredibly tame as they did as their young owners wanted. The parents of the children stood off to the side, taking pictures and smiling as their children interacted with the judge.
“The judges will be asking them specific questions,” Hawkins explained. “The younger they are the more generic the questions are, such as ‘What is the breed?’ These kids, they’ve started practicing doing these kind of things, and the older they get, the more competitive it gets.”
Source: Eastern Arizona Courier
