For five days in January, members of the Bayfield FFA Chapter traded their classroom seats for the bright lights, bustling barns, and packed arenas of the National Western Stock Show in Denver.
From January 19–23, seven Bayfield students joined more than 750,000 visitors at the 120th Anniversary National Western Stock Show — a record-breaking year that drew 750,039 attendees and surpassed the previous attendance mark set in 2006.
“They’ve gone to this for years,” said Bayfield FFA Advisor and Ag Teacher Alyssa Swan. For several students, however, this year marked a first.
First Encounters and Big Impressions
Swan said one of the most meaningful parts of the trip was watching students experience agriculture in ways they never had before.
“It was some students’ first time ever seeing certain animals,” she said, noting that first time goat and pig encounters were among the highlights experienced by Bayfield teens. They also explored barns filled with llamas, alpacas, calves, sheep, goats, chickens, and ponies. They watched different species compete in showmanship events, including donkey, draft horse, and mule competitions.
“They tested all of these animals and their bond with their handlers,” Swan explained.
The group also attended the Market Steer Champions Show and even walked behind the scenes while steers were being prepared for competition. Students observed professional cattle washing stations and watched as animals were blow-dried and groomed for the ring.
“It was a good learning experience for them to see hands-on what they do,” Swan said.
For junior Peyton Wilmer, who raises livestock herself, seeing the process on a national scale was enlightening.
“I raise livestock, and I got to see how they show their livestock on a bigger level and that was super eye-opening,” Wilmer said. “The new arena was super nice to see.”
She especially enjoyed the market beef show.
“That was really fun. I enjoyed that a lot,” she said.
This year’s Stock Show also set records in the Junior Livestock Auction, where the Grand Champion Junior Market Steer sold for a record-breaking $320,000, contributing to a total auction of nearly $1.9 million — a testament to the industry’s investment in the future of agriculture.
CSU Spur and Science in Action
Beyond the show ring, students explored CSU-Spur, where Swan said the expanded facilities offered some of the most powerful learning moments of the trip.
“This year was really exciting because they expanded on what CSU-Spur is,” Swan said. “We went into the different buildings and they were really cool.”
Students observed a live veterinary surgery, toured food science labs, and visited a rooftop greenhouse featuring aquaponics systems.
“They had garden towers and it was an aquaponics setup where the fish would swim around and fertilize the plants, and in return the plants kept the water clean and filtered out algae,” Swan said.
Wilmer agreed that touring CSU Spur stood out.
“Touring the CSU-Spur was one of the best learning experiences,” she said. “I didn’t know they had a rooftop greenhouse and that was the first one I had seen.”
Students also examined river invertebrates used to measure water quality, learned about Colorado’s natural resources, and visited the CSU Ag Adventure exhibit — including a beekeeper station where students stood safely inside a double-layered enclosure as bees landed inches away.
“Students could see the bees land right in front of them, but they couldn’t get through,” Swan said.
Agriculture Beyond the Barn
The trip also highlighted the business and environmental side of agriculture.
Students visited the Colorado Pork Producers Council station, learned about hog markets, and discussed agricultural commodities — including Colorado’s significant potato production.
“I didn’t know that Colorado is actually a massive producer of potatoes,” Swan said, noting the interactive exhibits filled with fun facts.
They observed the entire sheep shearing process, saw how plant-based dyes are extracted, and learned how wool is spun into yarn. They sampled Colorado-produced meat sticks from the Colorado Swine Association and explored booths ranging from the Colorado Trapper’s Association to artisans crafting repurposed horseshoes.
“All of it was centered around the production of ag,” Swan said, “but they learned about the economics dealing with ag, and the qualities and traits they were looking for in a pure-bred animal.”
Rodeo, Representation, and Connection
Every year, the Stock Show hosts a special FFA Day, offering discounts and celebrating chapters from across the country. Students saw FFA members from every state present flags during the rodeo, and professional riders changed their uniforms from red and white to blue and gold in honor of FFA.
For at least one Bayfield student, it was also a first rodeo.
“Seeing the students get exposure to things they had never thought about was the biggest takeaway,” Swan said. “We had a student who had never seen a rodeo before and ended up really enjoying it.”
The days were long — often starting at 7:30 or 8 a.m. and ending near 10 p.m. back at the hotel — but Swan said the impact was worth every minute, and new friendships were formed, perspectives broadened, and classroom lessons were brought to life.
“I took a very blended group of students. It wasn’t just FFA officers or seniors. We had two seniors, three juniors, and two freshmen go,” she said. “I think it is really nice that they built some friendships while they were there.”
She also appreciated the real-world applications the students witnessed and the hands-on experiences they were exposed to.
“Having students make those connections to things beyond what they learn in ag class was really valuable,” Swan said. “It is really important for students to grasp that there is more in ag that is hands-on than we can expose to them in a classroom, and there’s way more going on than we can show them in a school year.”
For Wilmer, the five days offered both inspiration and insight.
“We went up there for five days and looked at a bunch of different things,” she said. “Looking at all of the livestock and everything at CSU-Spur — it was just a really good experience.”
And in a year that shattered attendance records and celebrated 120 years of agricultural tradition, Bayfield FFA students had a front-row seat to agriculture on its biggest stage.
