Brynley Jelks earned the Premier Exhibitor awards in both the Market Goat and Market Lamb categories for junior age entrants at the 2022 Southeastern Youth Fair, which wrapped up last week.

Ty Springer, show and contest coordinator for the SEYF Market Goat and Market Lamb show contest for 15 years, praised the 9-year-old.

“It's a prestigious accomplishment. She's so young and it's very difficult," said Springer.

Swine Arrive:Southeastern Youth Fair

Southeastern Youth Fair:Steer Showmanship

Exciting!:First Day of the fair

He noted the animals were well over Brynley's own weight. He said he had not seen a dual winner in the Market category in his years as a coordinator of the competition, especially in her age group.

Age groups in the competitions include Junior, 8 to 10; Intermediate, 11 to 13; and Senior, 14 to 18.

Brynley‘s goat weighed 120 pounds and her lamb tipped the scales at 190 at final weigh-in. The animals fetched $8.25 and $9 per pound, respectively.

Springer said the competitions serve to develop leadership, and he noted the confidence with which Brynley handled the animals and how she completed her required record book documenting the raising of the animals.

Brynley commented that the competitions was hard work but successful.

“All my hard work every day working my animals finally paid off. My lamb and goat weighed more than me and I competed against middle and high schoolers," Brynley stated in a message forwarded by her mom, Kate.

The Premier Exhibitor Award is based upon the exhibitor’s standing in showmanship, record book completion and the Skillathon, or knowledge of a detailed study guide about the animals.

Brynley's awards were the result of months of diligent work of feeding, medically monitoring, documentation and – what the fourth grade student said was the hardest part – letting go of the animals for sale.

The 9-year-old said in an interview Saturday she cried when she had to send the goat and lamb on their way to market, but she understands the idea of farm animals raised for the purpose of sale.

Market Goat and Market Lamb competitions require the exhibitor to handle their project animal from October until the fair in February, a period of 120 days, maintaining all records.

Brynley wanted to improve her market animals through "feeding and exercise” and have her animals "gain more muscle and (be) able to brace them better in the show ring,” Kate Jelks wrote in an email.

The Jelks family – Kate and Brandon and their children: Elliaunna, 14, who won a weight division with her lamb this year at the fair; Ramzie, 8, who her father said will compete at the fair next year; and Brandon Jr., 2 – live in Summerfield on their 10 acre “5-J's Ranch," where the family raises Boer goats and blackface sheep.

The goat and lamb Brynley used in the SEYF competitions were born on the family farm around March 2021.

Kate Jelks is a home health care nurse and Brandon Jelks is a production manager with Ocala Breeders Feed and Supply, where Ty Springer also works.

Springer is a friend of the Jelks family and mentored them in starting up their goat and lamb farm. He was a coordinator and assisted youth in the 2022 Market Lamb and Market Goat contests, but he was not involved in judging those categories.

Market animal entrants must write a letter to prospective buyer and a thank you letter to the actual buyers, the website states.

Competition categories in the Market Lamb and Goat contests are Grand Champion; Reserve Grand Champion; Edsel Rowan Award; and Premier Exhibitor.

Market Goat competition winners were Roberto Zubieta, Grand Champion, and Breely Yeomans, Reserve Champion; in the Market Lamb contest, the winners were Breely Yeomans and Cayden Souza in the same respective categories.

According to the SEYF website, seyfair.com, the event is "the premier not-for-profit ALL YOUTH Fair for 4-H and FFA students in Marion County. Florida, each February."

The website states exhibitors must be from age 8 to 18 with special programs for younger children.

Springer hopes to see more youths get involved in the SEYF.

“The more youth we get to learn about agriculture, the better off we all will be,” he said.