Kids riding miniature bulls, jalapeno eating contest, goats, rodeo royalty, paintball shootout, cattle, demolition derby, chicken flying competition, sheep, alpalca obstacle course, corn shucking contest, pigs, children’s money hunt, pet parade, archery shoot, horses, fashion revue, horticulture show, concerts, rocket launches, livestock auction — wow.

All that might sound like a summer’s worth of festivals and competitions for a rural county in Southwest Colorado, but it’s all on the list of activities at the 2011 Montezuma County Fair.

The fair kicked off Friday, July 29, at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds on U.S. Highway 160 east of Cortez, and events will continue through Saturday, Aug. 6.

I grew up in a county with farms and ranches from one end to the other. Although I wasn’t raised on a farm or ranch, some of my friends were. I participated in FFA — Future Farmers of America — and showed, of all things, pigs. I bought the pigs at auction, built pens to keep them in, kept records of feed and other expenses, showed and sold the animals at the county fair and state livestock show, and received checks that were actually worth a little more than all my expenses.

The county fair was a huge part of the local lifestyle where I grew up. I remember showing my livestock and watching my friends and classmates show theirs. I also remember things like the jalapeno and pie eating contests. Even though the county I grew up in had many more acres of farmland and ranchland than Montezuma County, and much more livestock, the county fair wasn’t as impressive as the Montezuma County Fair.

People who live around these parts might not realize it, but the Montezuma County Fair is really nice, especially for such a remote, sparsely populated county.

Even if you don’t raise crops or cattle, the fair is worth checking out. You can get a quick taste of local agriculture, and, with all the events, the entertainment value is high.

In terms of spectacle and sheer entertainment, events like the ranch rodeo and demolition derby stand out. The real value of county fairs, however, is the education that youths receive when they raise and show livestock.

When I walk through a county fair and look at all the youths feeding, watering, clipping and/or brushing their calves, sheep, goats, pigs, horses, poultry or other animals, I often think about the relation those kids have with their animals. To some youths, the animals they raise are just livestock, but many youths name their livestock and get either a little, or quite a bit, attached to them. That’s easy to do when raising an animal and giving it a lot of TLC for months.

What I forget — what many of us might forget — is that we’ll depend on many of those youths to feed us in years to come. Keeping the more than 25,000 people who live in Montezuma County fed is a big chore, but nothing compared to feeding the 5 million people in Colorado, 311 million in the United States or 6.9 billion in the world.

In their effort to keep our bellies full, U.S. farmers grew $143.6 billion worth of crops in 2007, when the last national agriculture census was conducted, and ranchers raised $153.5 billion worth of livestock and poultry. Here in Colorado, farmers grew $1.9 billion worth of crops and ranchers raised $4 billion worth of livestock.

Beginning at 3 p.m. Saturday, Aug. 6, the Junior Livestock Sale will be held at the main barn at the Montezuma County Fairgrounds. Bidders at the auction will compete with each other to purchase livestock and poultry that local youths have raised. Buyers have the option of keeping the animal they purchase, donating it back to the youth who raised it, or donating to local people in need.

In either case, the sale represents the culmination of a lot of work by local youths, many of whom will toil hard, in a difficult industry, to provide our food in years to come.

We should support them and wish them all the best of luck.

For a schedule of Montezuma County Fair activities, see today’s Journal or visit the fair’s website, www.montezumacountyfair.com.



Sources: U.S. Census; 2007 Census of Agriculture; Montezuma County Fair.



Russell Smyth is managing editor of the Cortez Journal. He can be reached at 564-6030 or [email protected].