Quay County fair kicks off this week

The Quay County Fair this week is seeing an uptick in the number of livestock exhibitors.

Dallas Dowell, president of the fair board, said in a phone interview Friday the number of livestock exhibitors is “up a little bit” overall.

Dowell said the fair voted in 2021 to allow livestock exhibitors as young as 6 years old, “which helped some” with numbers this year, he said. The previous minimum age was 9.

“This year, all participants with a large animal — goat, sheep, hog, steer — are eligible to make the sale,” he said of the latest change. “We did that, hoping it would help numbers.”

He said 37 children have signed up so far for the auction, which begins at 6 p.m. Saturday and traditionally is the highlight of the fair.

One addition to the fair will be flea market on Friday and Saturday. Dowell said Alan Daugherty was organizing that event to help boost the fair.

The fair again won’t have a carnival. The last time the Quay County Fair hosted a carnival was 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“A lot of the carnival people went under during COVID,” Dowell said. “There’s a lot less carnivals, and we’re such a small venue that we have a hard time pulling somebody in.”

Dowell said the fair board hasn’t given up on hosting a carnival in the future.

“We keep trying, but no avail at this point,” he said. “We don’t have good contacts for carnival people.”

The fair begins at 5 p.m. Wednesday with the shepherd’s lead competition in the show arena. The swine shows will begin at 6 p.m., with the catch-a-calf scramble after that.

The fair opens Thursday and subsequent days at 9 a.m., with the sheep and goat showmanship clinic an hour later. The goat and lamb shows begin at 6 p.m.

On Friday, the rabbit show begins at 9 a.m., with the poultry show at 11. A watermelon feed is scheduled from 2 to 3:30 p.m. The heifer and steer shows begin after another catch-a-calf show at 5 p.m.

Saturday features the Itty-Bitty Rodeo at 11 a.m., the pet parade at noon, the horseshoe pitching contest at 1 p.m., and the scavenger hunt at 1:30.

The fair closes at 9 p.m. after the Junior Livestock Auction.