MELISSA SOLD A LITTLE LAMB JUNIOR FARMERS REWARDED.

Byline: PATRICK St. MICHEL Special to the Daily News

LANCASTER - Ten-year-old Amanda Sowa, clad in the 4-H Club uniform of white shirt, green hat and a sash, tightly gripped a leash tethered around a sheared sheep.

The 10-year-old Quartz Hill girl was selling George, her sheep, on Thursday at the Kiwanis Junior Livestock Auction at the Antelope Valley Fair.

``With the money I make, I'm going to save for college,'' she said, and a grin formed on her face. ``Plus, I'm going to buy the horse I always wanted.''

Sowa and about 500 other children and young adults, ages 9 to 19, brought livestock they have spent months raising to the R. Rex Parris Show Arena, where local business people and others bid on the animals. Prices sometimes topped $1,000 for an animal.

Youngsters from all over the Antelope Valley and elsewhere lined up with their sheep, pigs, cattle, goats, rabbits, chickens and turkeys while an auctioneer shouted out bids at a lightning pace.

Bidders buy animals for various reasons, auctioneer Lloyd Doster said.

``Most people buy them for advertisement or meat,'' he said. ``Others buy them to support the kids or the community.''

This year's auction is the first in the 3-year-old fairground's new R. Rex Parris Show Arena. For the first two years at the new fairgrounds in west Lancaster, the auction was held in a giant tent.

``The kids have new stuff to use,'' Doster said,

The new arena is also air-conditioned.

Thirteen-year-old Littlerock resident Jesse Ker waited outside the arena with the sheep he has raised for the last six months, Ozzy.

The teen said the money for Ozzy would be put away for college after he splurged some on a new iPod. Even though raising Ozzy has been hard work, the boy said he will miss the sheep when sold.

``Once you have them for a while, you get sick of them,'' he said. ``But I'll miss Ozzy. He's the best lamb I've had.''

The livestock holding-area pens contain animals of all sorts. Their names range from the literary, like Hamlet and Wilbur, to the fanciful or wacky, like Stud Muffin and Goober Stoober.

Fifteen-year-old Taylor Mahtesian's steer MooMoo will help pay for her to attend driving school.

Even though the possibility of getting a license excites her, Mahtesian said she will miss MooMoo.

``I got an attachment,'' she said, kissing the steer on the side of his head.

Sowa has a similar relationship with her sheep George.

``I'm going to miss him,'' she said. ``He's the only lamb I can play hide-and-go-seek with.''

ANTELOPE VALLEY FAIR

TODAY: Figure 8 racing, 7 p.m. Lucha Libre wrestling, 9 p.m. Admission is $15, which includes unlimited carnival rides. Hours 4 p.m.-1 a.m.

SATURDAY: Rural Olympics, 6 p.m. AV Idol finals, 10 p.m. Hours noon-1 a.m.

DAILY: Through Monday, carnival rides, farm animals, flower exhibits, handicraft display, photo exhibit, gem and mineral display, petting zoo, pig races.

ADMISSION: General admission, $8; children 6 to 11 and seniors 62 and older, $5; children under 6 and active-duty military personnel with identification, free. Grandstand event tickets include fair admission.

PARKING: $3, $5.

LOCATION: 2551 W. Ave. H, Lancaster.

INFORMATION: [phone] or www.avfair.com.

CAPTION(S):

3 photos, box

Photo:

(1 -- 3 -- color) Kids wait on Thursday, at left, to have their lambs sold at the Kiwanis Junior Livestock Auction at the Antelope Valley Fair in Lancaster. Above, a bid taker gestures. Below, Melissa Jean, 19, of Palmdale holds up a banner letting potential bidders know that her 8-month-old lamb won the Independent Grand Champion award.

Jeff Goldwater/Staff Photographer

Box:

ANTELOPE VALLEY FAIR (see text)