Hastin Hunter and his dressed up lamb in the Clover Kid’s Parade. (Photo by Dani Blackburn)

The latest arctic cold front blew into North Texas just as judging got underway Thursday morning in the 2018 Montague County Youth Fair; however, if it’s cold it must be show time.
This year’s show opened with 344 exhibitors competing with almost 1,000 total entries.
From crafts to chickens, bunnies to beef there was a competition for everyone to enjoy. See all the champions featured in the Winner’s Circle section in today’s News.
Kenton Holloway, youth fair board treasurer, said the show went smooth despite a few of the normal snags that can occur with the scheduling. And although the weather was typical for January, hazardous ice or snow avoided Montague County.
For the first time in several years the number of exhibitors increased substantially with 28 additional youngsters. The numbers have been stable going up one or two each year, so the board members were happy to see an increase.
Holloway said they were pleased with the results from Saturday night’s premium sale and tentatively it appears to be about $15,000 ahead of last year. In the 2017 sale organizers said the downturn in energy and the local economy finally hit the youth fair which last that saw its sale drop by about $15,000.
“The last few years we had a decline. Last year the total ended up about $87,000 and this year we expect it to be around $101,400,” said Holloway.

Read the full story in the mid-week News.