A look into the 4-H Sheep Show

Earlier this week, we met ten year old Quincy Titus, who is participating in her first year of showering at the Humboldt County Fair. 

“My sheep’s name is Christmas because he was born on December 25th. my favorite part of the fair is showing, and I just love showing,” she says. 

Today is the big 4-H Sheep show. 

“Well I thought I was only doing cows. And then we found out we couldn’t show cows the first year, so I decided to do sheep and I’m glad I did,” she says. 

Quincy has been at work for the last six months raising Christmas. 

“Well, you have to, like, buy them a lot of feed and, like, water, you have to feed them twice every day, so it’s a lot. And I also have a cow, so it’s, like, hard to like, go to every one of them,” she says. 

When it comes to what makes a good sheep, Quincy knows what’s best. 

“You want a black face, and you want them to have, like, good leg wool and you want them to walk good. Not too fast and not too slow, like just perfect. And if you’re on the front, you want to like, go in front of people and like, go faster and then like, like make sure they look good, that they’re not too skinny and they’re not too fat.  I want to get top three or top four. I want to do good,” she says. 

Quincy and Christmas ended up winning second place in showmanship and got a ribbon. She’ll get the chance to participate in Sunday’s youth livestock auction. The kids keep the money that their animals bring in during the auction, which totaled more than a million dollars last year. So, will Quincy graduate to Cows next year? Or will she keep raising sheep?

“Oh, I don’t know. They’re just so nice, and fluffy until you have to shear them, and stuff like that,” she says.

Story by Tucker Caraway