Cattle owners washed and trimmed their cows in preparation for the annual Black and White Days cattle show on Friday, where the cows will be judged on their physical features.
Cattle owner John Conrad from Eskdale, Utah, said winning these shows increases the value of the cows and their offspring.
“At really good shows, cows that win can be worth an excess of a hundred thousand dollars,” Conrad said.
It’s not just Utahns who compete in the nationally-ranked show. Robert Teixeira, has been coming from California for the last two decades. He said the quality of cattle has improved over the years, and he enjoys the competition.
“It’s just like playing baseball,” Teixeira said. “You get out there, you want to win, and it’s [the] same type of deal in this.”
The cattle show is just one of the events in the weeklong Black and White Days, an annual tradition in Richmond, Utah, which is celebrating its one-hundredth year.
“Richmond is such a small little town,” said Syann Andrus, an FFA member from Sky View High School who competed in a cattle-judging contest on Wednesday. “And for us to have this huge event here and have it be our hundred year anniversary, it’s like, I don’t know, it’s like Super Bowl to us.”
Other events will include Governor Herbert speaking on Friday morning and a free movie in the park that evening. On Saturday, there will be a free breakfast, a horse pull and a 12-k that runs up to Cherry Creek ski resort.
“That’s a run. That’s definitely not for the faint of heart,” said Richmond city council member Jeff Young, who is heading Black and White Days.
He said the tradition started in 1912 because people in Richmond had cattle they wanted to show.
After a disease hit, they held off for two years and started making it an annual tradition in 1915. Now, Young said it’s become an important community event.
“Every community needs something that can bring the community together, that puts our differences aside and creates a common theme that’s for the better good,” Young said. “And that’s kind of what Black and White Days is.”
Young said the “better good” he referred to is the memory that the pioneer traditions from the past are still important.