Locals participate in Pennsylvania Youth Livestock Expo

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Elizabeth Dice of Smithfield has been a PAYLE exhibitor since the first expo.

Courtesy of Square One Agri Marketing

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Lexi Mills, president of Pennsylvania Youth Livestock Expo, helped to organize the annual event.

Courtesy of Square One Agri Marketing

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Myla Mills, 7, of Vanderbilt, sang the National Anthem during the Grand Drive on Saturday, Dec. 14.

Courtesy of Square One Agri Marketing

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Connellsville Area High School junior Tori Hearn has been showing market goats, beef cattle and swine for eight years but has attended PAYLE for only the past two.

Courtesy of Square One Agri Marketing

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The Pennsylvania Youth Livestock Expo (PAYLE) pulled in record numbers this year, thanks to the hard work of President Lexie Mills and a host of volunteers from all across the commonwealth.

A Fayette County resident, Mills said she and a small group of friends and livestock enthusiasts, came up with the idea for PAYLE during the COVID-19 pandemic, when the Pennsylvania Farm Show had to be canceled.

“When the farm show was canceled, we wanted to be able to provide an opportunity for the kids to show their animals still,” she said.

The expo, open to those 21 and younger, includes market and breeding shows for lambs, goats, cattle and pigs. The expo has grown steadily, and Mills said this year’s show, held Dec. 13-15, brought in “by far, the most [participants ] we’ve ever had in any year.”