Welcome and Information

Welcome to the Lynden Junior Market Sale!

The market sale committee is working year round to provide Whatcom County 4-H and FFA members the opportunity to raise and sell a livestock animal at our annual live auction in August.

If you are a 4-H leader and have members selling for the first time please email info@lyndenjrlivestock.org your email address, phone number, and mailing address. This is for registration, picking up the tags, and receiving the member’s checks after the sale.

Currently, exhibitors may raise, show and sell steers, hogs, lambs, goats, pen of three fryer chickens, rabbits, and turkeys. All of these animals have age specifications, weight requirements, ownership deadlines, etc. 

How do you get started? First decide what animal you would like to raise and sell. You may raise as many as you would like. You can tag as many as you would like, just keep in mind each tag will be $5. You may only bring two market animals of the same species in 4-H or FFA to the fair to show and may only sell one animal. For example, one exhibitor could show 2 lambs in 4-H, 2 lambs in FFA, and 2 goats in FFA but would only sell one animal. They would choose the animal they would like to sell after their last market class.

We tag animals for the integrity of the sale. We want to know that the exhibitors have raised their animal for a required period of time. Tags will be acquired for their entire club or chapter by their leader/adviser. An email will be sent out in March to all leaders and advisers with the dates of pick up times for the current year's tag pick days and locations.  Tags will also be available at the first meeting in the year which is held in January or February.  If a tag does happen to fall out, contact info@lyndenjrlivestock.org immediately. The tag must be replaced asap and LJLS must have record of the replacement. For more information regarding tagging, please contact Whitnee (360) 815-3604 or email info@lyndenjrlivestock.org.

Registering

This is an online registration form that lets us know your tag numbers, how many animals you are raising, what species you are raising, and by agreeing to abide by all of the rules. Once you have your tag numbers in place go to www.lyndenjrlivestock.org. Click on "Register An Animal". Please fill out all of the information needed. Poultry and rabbits do not need tag numbers but they must register to let us know how many animals you are raising as well as agreeing to the rules. All specied registered by June 15.

Sign up for the Northwest Washington fair market class so the superintendents for each species know how many pens are needed. We are not in connection with the fairgrounds and therefore an exhibitor must register their animals at both the fairgrounds and the market sale.

Here is a run down of fair week for:

Tuesday - 

Morning haul-in, vet check, and weigh in will take place.  At weigh in you must have a quality assurance form for every animal crossing the scale. All quality assurance forms can be found on the home page. Please make sure you have it in hand when you cross the scale. Tuesday morning will be a mandatory meeting for all 4-H and FFA exhibitors in the Henry Jansen barn. Parents are welcome to attend. Leaders and advisors should attend this meeting. Weigh in starts immediately after the meeting. Make sure the tags have been cleaned for easy reading.  After weigh in, fill out the remaining requirements for your project animal record book. 4H members will need to communicate with their leaders to get their record books turned in on time. Fill out the market sale stall card handed to you at weigh in when your animal made weight and hang it above your animal’s pen by your animal’s stall card immediately after weigh in. Check the premium book with the NWWF for your show times as some start today.

Wednesday & Thursday -

If you have more than one animal make sure to tell us which one is selling within two hours of your last class. If we don’t hear which animal you want to sell within two hours after your last class we may choose for you. Why would we choose? We are scrambling to make the sale order to have time to get the sale booklet printed. Please don’t make us decide for you and let us know which animal you plan to sell! If you have any questions or concerns, feel free to come up to the LJLS office at the top of the stairs in the Henry Jansen Barn. Try getting a great picture in front of one of our backdrops to upload in ShoWorks for display on sale day or to use on your buyer thank you display card.

Friday –

Friday is sale day. Be ready EARLY in show clothes and animals clean. The sale starts at 1pm. 

If you have a non-sale animal (an animal that was registered and shown but is not going through the sale), you need to fill out a haul out form and turn it into the office no later than 10 am. This will be made available in the office and can also be printed from the home page. It is very important that we know where your animal is going and need to have documentation showing us what you want done. This helps the haul out process go smoothly and helps us get animals to the correct destination. We only make arrangement for LJLS registered animals.

Saturday –

Check in with the office to make sure they have the correct destination for any non-sale market animals. 

On Saturday evening the leaders/advisors will be given a Buyer Thank You Card for you to give to the buyer of your animal.  Your leader/advisor/families are responsible for providing and printing the picture for this card. Try to get a great shot in front of one of our back drops or a showing shot. Those pictures look great for businesses to display on the cards. You should receive an accurate list of sponsors by September 1. Please make sure everyone on the sponsor list is thanked as soon as possible.

All week –

Listen for any announcements over the intercom during the week.

What are quality assurance sheets? Quality assurance sheets let us know what vaccinations, medications, deworming, or any other products have been given to the animal. We want all the buyers to know they are getting a healthy animal and quality meat. At weigh in, a quality assurance sheet must be handed in for every animal crossing the scale. Quality assurance sheets may be printed from the home page. All links to important forsm can be found on the left panel of the home page.

Why do we require record books? We want to know you understand the time, effort, and money it takes to raise an animal to sell. Record books for 4-H and FFA may be printed off from our home page as well as the rubric that is used to grade them. All links to forms are easy to find on the left panel of the home page.

Will my animal sell? Yes, your animal will sell. However, many exhibitors do go out between June and August before the sale to find potential buyers and/or supporters. Add-on sheets can be printed from the home page and passed out with letters. Please use this sheet and do not make your own. This form is updated every year and may change. You may make your own letter and place the add-on sheet with it to deliver to potential buyers and sponsors. All checks must be written to Lynden Junior Livestock or LJLS. Feel free to talk with others about where they go to ask for support or how they write their letter. We start taking checks as early as July. All checks with add-on sheets may be sent to P.O. Box 972 Lynden, WA 98264. You may also bring any checks along with an add-on sheet to the market sale office located upstairs of the Henry Jansen barn during the fair.

Receiving your checks! Leaders will receive the exhibitor’s checks in October or November. We try hard to get the checks out as soon as possible. Why does it take so long? We are working hard gathering all of the money. The community is amazing in the support given and because of this wonderful support it can take a while to receive all of the money. Once the money is received, checks are written, and sent to the leader/advisor. All of the supporters are listed again. Some may have been added or changed. Please make sure a thank you letter has been given to each and every add-on and buyer before depositing the check.

We hope this has helped you feel ready to jump in and be a part of the Lynden Junior Market Sale! If you have more questions feel free to ask any of us on the committee or contact your leader.

A few additional things to know:

The show and sale is held at the Lynden fairgrounds during the Northwest Washington fair; however, the market sale is completely separate. Any questions, donations, checks, etc. can’t be answered by anyone in the fair office because they don’t know what you are talking about! Please contact us by email info@lyndenjrlivestock.org or visit us upstairs in the market sale office above the Henry Jansen barn during the fair. There is also a great deal of information on our home page that can help you out, ranging from important forms to market sale rules and by-laws.

All of us on the committee are here to help our youth have the opportunity to raise and sell a project animal. We all want each exhibitor to succeed! Every person on the committee or any person you see helping out are all volunteers. Nobody is paid for all of the time they put in to make sure that this sale goes as well as possible. The percentage taken from the checks are for all the things needed to have a successful show and auction. Some of these costs are computers, making of the sale booklet, advertising, paper, CPA (we are a non-profit), etc. If you would like to help out please contact us!

The amount of support given to the exhibitors from our community is overwhelming and awesome! We hope every parent and exhibitor can take the time to thank and be in awe of our amazing community.