Livestock jackpot comes to town

Brittany Hamilton
4-H & Youth Development Educator
 
“So I have an idea …” was how the entire conversation started when Krystal Crinklaw approached Weston County 4-H about having a livestock jackpot in the northeast. From that point forward, this little idea, mixed with a lot of hard work, snowballed into an event held June 28-29 at the Weston County Fairgrounds. 
Youth livestock showmen came from Edgemont, Sundance, Sheridan, Douglas, Moorcroft, and Newcastle to participate in the first annual Northeast Grand Slam Jackpot. 
The Northeast Grand Slam was open to market steers/heifers, sheep, goats, and swine. Around 19 swine entered the ring on Friday night while 18 market lambs, six market goats, and six market steers showed on Saturday. Tyler Shaw, a native of Kimball, Neb., and livestock judger for Casper College and the University of Wyoming, served as the judge. 
Livestock jackpots and progress shows have been a popular trend in the show world of 4-H/FFA for quite a while. Started by livestock enthusiasts, the basis of the shows is to give participants more opportunities to show their market animals aside from the county fair. These jackpots serve as good practice for fair, essentially giving participants more experience in grooming, fitting, and showing their animals in a competitive setting. Because jackpots generally hire official, credited judges, youth can also gain insight on how their feeding program and market animal are doing in time to make adjustments before fair.  
Crinklaw, a long-time 4-Her and now parent to 4-Hers, saw a need to bring this kind of an experience to Newcastle and surrounding areas. She and a small group of volunteers were pinnacle in fundraising, finding sponsors for the event, organizing help, and marketing the Grand Slam in partnership with Weston County 4-H. It is because of these donors and sponsors the event was a great success.  
To participate in jackpots a member pays so much per entry to enter their animals with a small additional fee to enter showmanship. The money from entries along with money gathered from donations then gets “jackpotted” back out to the top individuals in the market classes and showmanship winners. The more participants who enter, the bigger the pot. Winners of their classes have been known to use their earnings to purchase feed, clippers, brushes, and other show equipment to better their future projects. 
“I’m pretty happy with the numbers we had for our first year doing this,” Krystal remarked. “Hopefully it will grow from here.” 
The dates of the 2nd annual Northeast Grand Slam will be June 26-27, 2020. If you show livestock in Weston County or surrounding areas, be sure to mark your calendars!