Peanut the goat is a classic redhead, sassy and spicy, as described by his 12-year-old owner, Ryker Butler. The 6-month-old baby goat loves to wrestle, jump on people and clumsily pretend to be a mountain goat. If anyone other than Ryker tries to feed him, Peanut will snootily turn his head awa y. When he sits, obscuring his legs, he looks like a “jelly bean.”  Ryker Butler and his 6-month-old goat, Peanut, won Reserve Champion in the lightweight division at the Wasatch County Fair Days junior livestock auction. Credit: Photo courtesy of Kylie Butler Peanut’s original name was Biscoff. Ryker renamed him Peanut Anderdingus. His surname comes from a viral meme and the fact that “he can be a dingus,” Ryker explained. Ryker knew when he bought baby Peanut from a family friend that he’d be raising him as a meat goat to be auctioned off at Wasatch County Fair Days’ junior livestock show. It was the first year Ryker or anyone in his family had participated. Though he loves Peanut, Ryker accepted his fate. “You’ve got to eat something. It’s the life cycle,” Ryker said Friday. “Some people like eating goat, and some people don’t. So, it’s dependent on the buyer if they want to eat him as brisket or lamb chops or just keep him as a family pet.” But at the auction Saturday, the bond that Ryker and his mom, Kylie, had formed with Peanut proved stronger than they anticipated. Local company Epic Engineering bought the goat for about $700 and decided to send him to Springville Meat Company for processing. That’s when Kylie attempted to buy Peanut back — but Epic Engineering donated the goat to her instead. “It was a huge thing that Epic did for us in just donating him back, because Ryker will still get that donation money for all of his work,” Kylie said. Peanut and a goat friend on his new home, a farm in Duchesne. Credit: Photo courtesy of Kylie Butler Peanut now lives on a friend’s farm in Duchesne, where he will continue to be raised as a pet. Though Kylie and her son learned that the livestock auction isn’t for them, Ryker became a more responsible and patient person by raising his rambunctious goat. Kylie and Ryker also appreciate the role the junior livestock program plays in the community. “The farmers that raise the beef? This is where it starts, with generations of this,” Kylie said. The livestock auction involves goats, sheep, cows and swine. The animals are judged for their potential meat quality, hence why the goats and sheep are shaved. “Then, you can see their muscles,” Kylie explained. “You just don’t go past the knees, and then you’ve got to leave the tip of the tail.” The resulting haircut made it look like Peanut was wearing woolly boots and had a feather duster tail.  Peanut won second place in the lightweight division, earning Ryker a pink Reserve Champion ribbon. Participants can also win awards for how they handle their animals and present them to the judges. Children aged 8 through 18 participate in the auction either through Utah State University’s 4-H livestock program or the Future Farmers of America, or FFA, of which Wasatch High School agriculture students are members.  Kody Clyde, a Wasatch High School agriculture teacher of 23 years, said there are always a few tears during the auction as youth say goodbye to their animals. “It’s a hard lesson, but they learn that they’re actually doing something really good that’s going to benefit other people afterwards,” he said. “They’re actually making a difference in someone’s family, where they’re going to have a high-quality meat product to enjoy all winter.” For Heber City native Billy Hansen, the junior livestock program is a way to keep in touch with the Heber Valley’s agricultural roots even amid rapid growth and development. Hansen participated when he was growing up. This year, his four kids, aged 9 to 18, raised sheep for the auction. “It’s so expensive to raise livestock and to have animals because land is so expensive and feed is so expensive. So, this is a way that kids can still get a feel for raising livestock and still be able to do it on not as much land,” he said. Hansen and his kids also participate for the life lessons. His oldest son learned one last year when his sheep died unexpectedly the night before the auction. “They work hard for it, and it doesn’t turn out the way they wanted it to or imagined it to. That’s part of life, too,” Hansen said.  Wasatch County 4-H livestock coordinator Abigail Johnson has also participated in livestock auctions since childhood. She said another thing kids get out of the experience is a chance to be a leader as they help younger kids in the program take care of their animals. Clyde agreed. He was raised in Heber City and said participating in FFA was “the one thing that gave me confidence.” “I was pretty shy, not very outspoken, made a lot of friends and was forced to become a leader,” he said. Raising animals also gave him that sense of responsibility all kids in the program benefit from. “They’re learning how to take care of a living organism. You can’t go on vacation and not worry about who’s going to feed your pig,” Clyde said. “You have to go out twice a day and feed and water and walk and wash and train and all these things. It’s a really big commitment.” Their kids’ work culminates in community members — family, friends, companies or hotels — buying their animals for sometimes thousands of dollars. One year, a lamb went for $50,000 as a fundraiser for a local family whose barn had burned down. But to Clyde, at least, the money is secondary to what youth learn from the program. “In my opinion, we’re raising kids, not livestock,” he said. “It’s nice that they’re getting these big paychecks. But to me, the product we’re getting in our community is a well-rounded kid who knows how to work and knows how to go out into the industry and get things done.” The post Wasatch County junior livestock program is about ‘raising kids, not livestock’ appeared first on Park Record. ...read more read less