Stock show and rodeo ends with a bang

Whether it’s the weather, or the state of the agriculture economy organizers say this year’s Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo was a success.

“The ranchers are having a good year, the farmers are having a good year, commodity prices are up and Rapid City’s having a good year,” Said Brian Maliske, General Manager of the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center.

In fact, the 2012 stock show shattered the 2009 all time record with 333,750 people attending and spending.

“We had estimates in the past that people spent between $37 and $40 million,” Maliske said.

Organizers say they hope this year’s event will bring in close to $45 million to stimulate the Black  Hills economy.

“We’ll be somewhere over a million dollars in cattle this year, that’s pretty close to what we’ve been the past few years,” Ron Jeffries, General Manager of the Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo.

Even vendors say they’re benefiting from the positive trend.

“We thought that traffic was up and we also thought our sales turned out even better than last year, which makes us really excited to come back next year,” said vendor Ashley Miller.

In the meantime, it’s time to return to normalcy. The event center must be spic-and-span for a big music event on Wednesday.

“We’re on a tight time schedule for cleaning up the Rushmore Plaza Civic Center,” Maliske said.

It’s time for the dusting, the vacuuming and the cleaning, none of which can wipe away the memory of this record year.