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AgFest Junior Livestock auction going virtual
agfest
Makayla Baker of the Manteca High FFA chapter cools off crossbred swine at last year’s San Joaquin AgFest Junior Show and Auction held at the fairgrounds.

AgFest 2020 will go on as planned.

The San Joaquin Junior Livestock Show and Auction will be that of a virtual show and auction due to the challenges involving the COVID-19 pandemic.

 It will begin in that first week of June with 4-H and Future Farmers of America students -- Manteca Unified and Ripon Unified included -- submitting their videos and photos for exhibit on the AgFest website: www.sanjoaquinagfest.org.

Judges, from June 6-8, will take it from there, evaluating and placing each of the entries.

On June 12 through 14, the AgFest livestock will be up for sell via online auction.

"Exhibitors are invited to attend a barbecue awards and scholarship dinner (planned for late summer) to recognize the outstanding exhibits," said AgFest volunteer and organizer Molly Watkins.

In addition to livestock, AgFest will again feature ag mechanics, wood, floral and horticultural projects.

The virtual show and auction is being made possible by Stock Show Auction out of Stephenville, Texas.

"Stock Show Auction has expertise in hosting online real estate auctions," said Watkins, who indicated that changes came about when the Houston Livestock Show was canceled.

She added: "The company transformed their business platform from real estate to livestock, creating a (virtual) show and auction for hundreds of Texas exhibitors forced to leave Houston because of the COVID-19 stay-in-place orders."