Christina Smith-Phillips, Agri teacher at Hope High School, said she had 54 students with animals in the competition. "It's absolutely wonderful knowing what they've learned this year. If you can see these kids, they get these animals sometime in January or February, and they absolutely know  nothing. The animal is wild as a march hare, and the kids know nothing. By the time they get here, they've learned so much about not just setting them up as to how to take care of them, but as far as feeding them nutrition, disease and prevention. That's really big with lambs and goats. So it's a lot."

The chickens and rabbits were each judged in their separate contests, but the goat competition was broken down by sizes. The lambs and hogs had their own category as well. The kids would bring their animals forward to display them in the rodeo arena and a judge would assess each animal, finally award first, second and third-place ribbons to the winning owners. A large and appreciative audience watched from the east risers.

Friday afternoon the animals were auctioned off.