Marshall Mecham
Carlsbad Current-Argus
marshallmecham21@gmail.com

Jace Deans, 17, worked hard to get ready for this year’s Prospect Yearling Class at the Eddy County Fair since receiving his horse named DC Foghorn Leghorn in February, and it paid off.

Deans and his yearling, representing Artesia FFA, captured Grand Champion honors at the 80th edition of the annual fair held at the Eddy County Fairgrounds in Artesia.

The Prospect Yearling Show took place Wednesday, July 23, the second day of the fair that ends Saturday, July 26.

Tracelynn Alcorn, representing Cottonwood 4-H, took home Reserve Grand Champion. Katie Dowell, also representing Cottonwood 4-H, placed third in the competition.

This is the second consecutive year Deans was awarded Grand Champion Prospect Yearling. In 2024, he won it with his horse named Verucca Salt.

Both horses he claimed victory with came from Durrett Cattle, a multi-generational family run cow, calf and yearling operation in the Texas Panhandle and Eastern New Mexico.

Payton Deans, Dean’s older brother, said Jace deserved this victory.

“He trained late nights and very early mornings,” Payton Deans said. “I think he was pretty prepared for this.”

Myra Deans, Dean’s mother, said she was skeptical of him pursuing this interest but is happy with what he has learned.

“I was not a fan of him wanting to try this because I just didn’t know what to expect,” she said. “I didn’t know how to help him, but this is his third year showing and it has helped him learn some responsibility with caring for another life form.”

The fair allows individuals to participate in the event until their senior year of high school. Myra said Deans plans to take part each year until then.

Jace Deans entering his junior year of high school and will play for the varsity basketball team a second straight year.

Myra said despite his desire for basketball, Jace still has a deep fondness for working with yearlings.

“He loves basketball, but I will say he has a special love and passion for these horses,” she said. “He just loves getting to know them and training them.”

Mike Smith
Carlsbad Current-Argus
msmith@currentargus.com

It’s starting to look as though the Carrasco family from Loving might have a lock on the broiler chicken show at the Eddy County Fair.

“It’s pretty exciting,” Arianna Carrasco said Thursday after winning the chicken show’s Grand Champion prize on the third day of the 80th annual fair at the Eddy County Fairgrounds in Artesia.

The fair started Tuesday, July 22, and wraps up Saturday, July 26.

“Last year my brother won and my name will be with his on the plaque.”

Arianna’s brother, Lupito Carrasco, not only exhibited the Grand Champion broiler at the 2024 fair, he also saw it sell for $8,000 during the junior livestock auction.

Arianna Carrasco will try to top that price when her Grand Champion is auctioned off Saturday during the fair’s marquee event at the Livestock Barn Show Ring.

Arianna, a 16-year-old junior at Loving High School, said the art of raising award-winning chickens begins with early morning and late night feedings.

Once the nighttime feedings are finished, she gets some needed sleep in preparation for the next day.

“I usually go to bed by 11 p.m.,” she said.

Arianna has attended the Eddy County Fair for 10 years and has been showing animals for six years.

During an interview after the show, she said she’ll soon start getting ready for 2026 and a possible “three-peat” for the Carrasco family.

“I’m ready to work at it again,” she said.

Carrasco is a member of the Loving 4-H Club.

The broiler chicken show featured three categories – Class 1, Class 2 and Class 3. Carrasco topped the Class 2 and 3 judging but did not have an entry in Class 1.

That division was won by Makayla Monk, a sophomore at Artesia High School.

“I was excited,” said Monk, who represented Artesia FFA and Eddy County 4-H in the competition.

A sophomore at Artesia High School, Monk was busy at this year’s fair, entering exhibits not only in the chicken show but also in shows for dairy cattle, rabbits and ducks.

She said getting ready for the fair “takes commitment and preparation and never procrastinating.”

Monk said a typical day for her starts with morning feedings at 6 a.m. She said the animals also need a late afternoon or evening feeding.

“(It takes) four to six hours depending on when you go out,” she said.

Finer points of broiler chickens and shows

Broiler chickens are raised for their meat, according to the North Carolina State University website.

Before showing a bird in a county fair, 4-H and FFA members should learn how to handle poultry, proper attire for a show and how to maintain a positive attitude, according to the Ohio State University (OSU) Extension Office.

A bird’s appearance, chicken coop training, and training the bird how to pose are other facets poultry judges consider during a show, according to OSU.

Mike Smith can be reached at 575-628-5546 extension-2361.

Mike Smith
Carlsbad Current-Argus
msmith@currentargus.com

Johnannah Miller just started raising rabbits in January, but as of Wednesday she’s already a champion breeder.

The 17-year-old home-schooled student from Carlsbad won a first-place ribbon and also “Best of Show Opposite Sex” honors during the breeding rabbit show July 23 at the Eddy County Fair.

The 80th annual fair at the Eddy County Fairgrounds in Artesia began Tuesday, July 22, and concludes Saturday, July 26.

“This is my first year showing,” said Miller, a member of the member of the Blue Jeans and Boots 4-H Club. “I didn’t expect to get that high of a placing at all. I was shocked and proud that I was able to come this far.”

Miller credited her friend Olivia Jefferson, also a member of the Blue Jeans and Boots 4-H Club, with steering her toward rabbit-breeding and showing.

“She started me on indoor projects and said, ‘It would really be cool to do rabbits,’” Miller said. “I had never done rabbits before … it’s my second-to-last year before I leave for college so I thought, why not try it?”

Jefferson, 18, is a home school graduate from Carlsbad who’s been raising rabbits for seven years but, like Miller, she entered her first show Wednesday at the county fair. And, like Miller, she won a first-place ribbon – and also won the “Best of Show” award.

“I definitely didn’t expect it,” Olivia said. “I was very excited.”

Jefferson said rabbits require care and attention before entering a fair competition. Proper nutrition is especially important, she said.

“You’ve got to feed them and position them and weigh them every day to make sure they are gaining (weight). I also gave them toast on (certain) days and gave them alfalfa hay,” Jefferson said.

Meanwhile, a 10-year-old exhibitor representing the Artesia 4-H Club, Torrance Hughes, won first place and Grand Champion honors Wednesday in both the baker rabbit and fryer rabbit shows.

“It means a lot to me,” said Torrance, who attends Hermosa Elementary School in Artesia. “It’s kind of a (family) tradition to show. I’m planning to show rabbits forever.”

“I’m very proud of her hard work,” said Torrance’s mom, Stephanie Hughes.

Torrance’s older sister, Allyson Hughes, showed rabbits at the fair for three years starting in 2021.

“I taught her how to set them up and put them on the table,” Allyson said.

Torrance and the other contestants placed the rabbits on small tables in the fairgrounds show ring before show judge Teresa DeSautell went about the business of choosing the winners.

Jonah Pope of the Loving Future Farmers of America showed the Reserve Grand Champion in the baker rabbit division and Trayton Wells of the Blue Jeans and Boots 4-H captured Reserve Grand Champion honors in the fryer rabbit judging.

Mike Smith can be reached at 575-628-5546 extension-2361.

El Rito Media News Services

With fires likely in the Southwest every year, fire officials say those living near forest land can get ahead of fire season and do preventive work to keep themselves and their communities safe.

One of the most effective things residents can do is create defensible spaces, which are areas of reduced fuels around a home and other structures that can reduce fire danger.

Joseph Franklin-Owens, owner of Southwest Tree Solutions and the only climbing arborist in the area, has experience with creating such spaces.

“Anyone living near the outskirts of town, it seems like it’s a good idea to kind of have a closer look at the trees growing in and near their property and what can be done to mitigate some of the fire hazards,” he said.

Potential hazards can include dead trees, branches near the ground on trees near structures

and the location of the structures themselves, according to Franklin-Owens. He said that a lot of factors go into creating a defensible space.

“There’s certainly a lot of easy things for landowners to do on their own,” he said. “Then some [of] the work that actually needs to be done to create a proper defensible space is more something you’d wanna hire a professional or contractor for.”

Franklin-Owens explained that professionals are equipped to deal with the waste that comes from cutting trees, and may be able to identify potential issues that residents overlook.

The New Mexico Forestry Division, through the Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department, has programs for residents who want to address wildfire hazards. The agency’s website — emnrd.nm.gov/sfd/fire-prevention-programs — has guides in English and Spanish for residents on living with fire, available free online.

According to the guide, it “is not a matter of ‘if’ a wildfire is going to occur, but ‘when,’” and it encourages residents to be ready to deal with fire.

It includes sections on community protection, home access, defensible spaces, built environments and evacuations.

Among the guide’s recommendations, residents are advised to remove dead plants and dead parts of trees around their home, which could act as fuel in the event of a fire.

The Fire Adapted N.M. Learning Network has fire prevention and response resources available on its website, facnm.org. These resources include information on fire safety and funding for before, during and after a fire.

Greg Aplet, forest ecologist with the Wilderness Society, explained that parts of devastating disasters like the Palisades Fire in California could have been prevented with building and maintaining the urban environment to match the fire risk.

“While that fire may have ignited in chaparral, it quickly transitioned into a community that had done nothing to prepare for it,” Aplet said. “I know, because I grew up in that community — fire was something that happened next door in Malibu, not in the Palisades, and the houses and the landscaping reflected that myth.”

Aplet, along with three other fire experts, spoke about the importance of having some fires as a way to keep wildfires in general manageable.

“I think the first thing people need to understand is that fire’s been part of nearly every ecosystem in North America for thousands of years, whether it’s been through lightning or through the intentional use of fire by Indigenous peoples,” Aplet said.

Aplet said that alongside shaping the ecosystem, animals in those environments depend on wildfire. He said that the prevention of all fires can affect the forest, leading to bigger and more destructive fires in the future.

“It changes those ecosystems, often by allowing fuel to build up in fire’s absence, so that when fire does return — and it always does — it burns hotter, with a ferocity that the ecosystem and the species aren’t adapted to,” Aplet said.