LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – The Arkansas State Fair is back in full swing this weekend with plenty of rides, food, and something that makes some livestock competitors work harder than they have before.

One by one people lined the fencing, to watch the competition they wait all year for… the Arkansas State Fair.

“It takes dedication to get here, and it takes all year long, like all summer to get here, you don’t go from day to night where you don’t walk your animals, you should be walking it and working it every day,” a young woman who showed lambs at the fair, Caroline Walker said.

It all begins months before they enter the arena.

“In the spring, you buy your animal and then during the summer you work with them and you go to jackpots. Then towards the fall, September time you go to the county fair. You just have to work really hard to get here. It’s a lot of work,” a young woman who showed lambs at the fair, Lexi Paton said.

Putting in blood, sweat, and lots of extra money compared to years past.

“Everything is a lot more expensive now, like supplements you buy feed you buy it’s a lot harder to get. And then also stuff for your show like blankets, brushes, spray, it’s so much harder to get and it’s almost double, well… a lot more expensive,” a young woman who showed lambs at the fair, Hayden Parker said.

These four young ladies are showing lambs at the fair, and their said a lot of work goes into it.

“Honestly there is a lot of competition, you have to work hard if you want to place. There are a lot of families that work really hard, like this is all they do. So much dedication, thousands of dollars go into this,” Parker stated.

Some even said food was hard to find this summer.

“There was at one point where my ag teacher couldn’t find food for our animals, so it was pretty hard,” Paton stated.

That is as inflation continues to sky rocket prices.

“Feed prices have like tripled what they used to be and like the supplements they use, they’ve like gone up three times in price,” Parker said.