The 17-year-old is joined by two brothers and a sister who also show livestock at the Youth 4-H Show. Amanda is the oldest, while brother Matthew is 15, sister Rachel is 13 and youngest brother Robert is 11 years old. Her siblings show pigs.

The livestock auction, when Dakota was to be sold, would be tough, Genereaux said, but 4-H’ers who raise livestock “get a little more used to it” each year.

Genereaux was one of a large number of Saline youth who participated in the annual event that draws more than 800 kids for a week of projects, animal shows and contests. This year’s show was held July 24- 29 at the Washtenaw Farm Council Grounds in Lodi Township.

Ashleigh Budrick opted to raise animals that are much smaller than the ones Genereaux cares for.

Budrick raises Hotot rabbits as a member of Saline 4-H Farmers 4-H Club and had two of them at the youth show. In addition, she competes at American Rabbit Breeders Association open shows with her small white rabbits, which have distinct black circles around their eyes.

In fact, she's taken a Best Four class honor — top honors for the lighter-weight rabbits — in an American Rabbit Breeders Association show in the area.

“I want to be a vet,” Budrick said of deciding to raise rabbits, adding she was advised to get more involved with different kinds of animals by a representative from Michigan State University.

Adam Roehm, 14, of Saline, has followed in a family tradition of showing sheep as his 4-H project.

“Since I was little, I always liked helping with the sheep, feeding them and helping my dad raise them,” he said.

In fact, he said his grandfather and father raised sheep and his sister, Mary, 13, has joined in the family legacy. “They’re calm and I work them as much as I can,” Mary said of her pair.

This was Mary’s first year showing sheep at the fair and she entered some still projects as well.

Chrissy Polzin, 11, of Saline, said she choose to show sheep “because I thought they would be easier (than dairy calves) but they aren’t. You don’t get to show sheep with a halter.”

She said she liked the 4-H Youth Show because “there are lots of animals and no screaming people on rides.”

She was showing Pam and Sammy, a pair of Suffolk-Montadale crossed sheep, for the first time, while older sister, Cassidy Polzin, 13, was making her 4-H Youth show debut as well with a dairy calf.

“I decided to show dairy because I don’t have to sell it at auction. I can bring it back next year,” Cassidy said.

Lily, her Holstein, was born in January, as part of the family’s dairy herd.

Lisa Allmendinger is a regional reporter for AnnArbor.com. She can be reached at lisaallmendinger@annarbor.com. For more Saline stories, visit our Saline page.