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The National Western Stock Show, established 113 years ago, now stands as the world's largest stock show.
It’s expected a massive 15,000 animals will attend the show over the 16 days with beef cattle making up the majority.
A total of 20 breeds will be in attendance with cattle present from right across America as well as animals from Canada.
Over $100m for the city of Denver
Over 650,000 visitors attend the event annually with stockmen from right across the world.
This large attendance sees an economic impact of over $100m for the city of Denver city and the surrounding county.
Youth involvement is one of the highlights of the livestock shows.
Young exhibitors from across the nation participate in competitive arenas for prize monies, national recognition for their achievements and a chance at college scholarships.
The scholarships come from the proceeds of the show which all contribute to the National Western Scholarship Trust.
Over 200 pen areas are booked out by individual herds
The Trust awards 64 scholarships annually to students studying agriculture and medicine to practice in rural areas at colleges and universities in Colorado and Wyoming.
The 2019 year is marked as the “Year of the yards” as it’s the last year where the herd sire display will be in its current location of the historic Denver stock yards.
The herd sire display acts as one of the biggest attractions at the show.
For four days over 200 pen areas are booked out by individual herds, preliminary herds advertising young bulls for the upcoming sale season.
Many herds also use this as a place to market herd sires which may have semen available to sell.
The 16-day show also serves as an entertainment arena, hosting one of the world's richest regular season professional rodeos, family and educational shows plus Colorado's largest western trade show.
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