For 16 days each January, the National Western Center in Denver is overtaken with a sea of cowboy boots, hats and vendors hawking everything from souvenirs such as custom sized-hats, toys for children and jewelry to horse stables, cattle chutes and speciality barns.

Three minutes away, past lines of fried foods and blasting country music, inside the Denver Coliseum, the slightly sweet smell of hay, fresh dirt and concessions mingle with the metallic jangle of cow bells, the grunting of powerful animals and the roar of an enraptured crowd as upward of three rodeos happen each day.

For institutions including Colorado State University, tradition has made the NWSS an annual highlight of the agricultural mission.

“CSU as an institution was founded as a land-grant university, and part of that and our original roots were agriculture and mechanics,” said Don Thorn, manager of external relations for rural Colorado at CSU. “So I think that just goes all the way back to our land-grant mission of education and extension and teaching … and service to our state.”

Jan. 18 was a specially branded day at the NWSS: CSU Day at the stock show. The show featured a special rodeo performance sponsored by CSU and included appearances by President Amy Parsons and other university community members, but the CSU influences extended throughout the entire stock show.

Each day, a booth section upstairs boasts areas like CAM’s Classroom, an agricultural education section delivered by CSU and Sci on the Fly that is filled with stations promoting veterinary education, Colorado geology and basic agricultural concepts. Geared toward children, young attendees who complete the scavenger hunt earn a badge, designating them as a Junior Ag Ambassador for the National Western Stock Show.

“Our students in ag ed are all the people power for delivering that, and they’ll see thousands and thousands of students and parents and people — young people — sometimes every day, through the entire show,” Thorn said. “So there’s another extension of the classroom for them (because) some of them want to be future teachers. Some of them want to learn about agriculture literacy. And there’s a big extension of the classroom of just applying their knowledge and working with people of all ages and all backgrounds as well.”

Thorn emphasized that a large portion of the agricultural education taught in CAM’s Classroom focuses on food production with an emphasis on statewide collaboration to teach children where food comes from.

“We’re working with all those organizations that promote agriculture products in Colorado and then delivering and showing the patrons what they’re learning and where all that food comes from and how it connects to Colorado and how it’s an integral part of Colorado and what they might be seeing at other parts of the stock show,” Thorn said.

Running daily through Jan. 26, the NWSS offers over 10 events daily, including petting zoos, animal shows, trick roping, Western shows and professional rodeos.

The pro rodeos, which vary slightly based on sponsorship of events, typically include bareback riding, steer wrestling, team roping, mutton busting, saddle bronc riding, tie-down roping, barrel racing and bull riding. Entertainment between each event includes performances by the Westernaires, a drill horse organization.

Based on a bracket format, the first 16 rounds of rodeo are competed in a two-a-day format until Jan. 24. On Jan. 25, the top three cowboys from each event in each bracket compete in three semi-final rounds, and from there, the top four per event compete in the finals Jan. 26, the final day of the stock show.

In addition to the events put on by NWSS, CSU Spur, a research and education campus, hosts ag-themed events throughout the duration of the stock show.

“I always knew that leather was something desirable and luxurious, but until I started this odyssey last year, I didn’t understand that fashion designers and people working in the fashion industry have to think a lot about durability of materials, and leather is second to none. There are no synthetics that touch leather in terms of breathability, durability, clean ability and biodegradability.” -Jordan Kraft Lambert, Ag Innovation Center director

CSU Spur is composed of three buildings: Hydro, focused on water education; Vida, focused on equine health and science; and Terra, focused on agriculture and soil sciences. Spur is located on the National Western Center grounds. Together in partnership with the NWSS, Spur offers daily activities and free admission.

Jordan Kraft Lambert, director of the Ag Innovation Center, is based out of CSU Spur and promotes innovative projects relating to agriculture.

“The purpose of the Ag Innovation Center is (to) understand the problems that Colorado farmers and ranchers are facing,” Lambert said. “We incubate and accelerate ag-tech companies that solve those problems, and then we also throw parties for problems that are worth solving that haven’t been solved yet. We keep a database of every problem any farmer (or) rancher has ever told us about, and one of the problems that comes up quite frequently in the database is the problem of disposing of organ meats and hides.”

To address that problem, Lambert said that Spur is hosting a brand-new event during the stock show called the Offal Party, featuring the Genuine Leather Fashion Show Jan. 25. Partnering with the design and merchandising program at CSU, the Offal Party will focus on sustainability of cattle and utilizing the entire animal for consumption and production by offering a tasting of dishes prepared with offal — cattle organs that are usually discarded — and featuring a fashion capstone of sustainable leather designs.

This sustainability is crucial, as 44% of the weight of cattle is not muscle meats that are typically consumed, Lambert said. For ranchers, they have to pay to send that waste to a landfill.

“Their (profit) margins were already thin, and now they’re having to pay to do something — they’re going to emit greenhouse gasses once it gets to the landfill,” Lambert said. “And that’s the most nutrient dense part of the animal that just exited our food supply chain. And hide actually is, of course, the skin of the animal, which means that it evolved over millions of years to protect that animal and keep her comfortable, and that means that it’s actually a really high-performance fashion material.”

The Genuine Leather Fashion Show project will showcase capstone designs focusing on sustainability in leather design.

“I always knew that leather was something desirable and luxurious, but until I started this odyssey last year, I didn’t understand that fashion designers and people working in the fashion industry have to think a lot about durability of materials, and leather is second to none,” Lambert said. “There are no synthetics that touch leather in terms of breathability, durability, clean ability and biodegradability.”

In addition to the tasting and fashion show, the event will feature line dancing and lectures from members of the design and merchandising department, and Lambert hopes it raises awareness surrounding the importance of sustainability in the agricultural ecosystem.

“It’s important because we all eat, and as foodies and fashionistas, you’re part of the ag ecosystem,” Lambert said. “So we want to have events like this to have an opportunity to bring the entire supply chain — the entire food system — together in one room in a celebration so that you can actually shake the hands of the cowboys and cowgirls who helped raise your meat (and) understand a little bit about why what they do contributed to soil health. We really think about how we’re citizens of our food system as much as we’re citizens of Colorado.”

Reach Allie Seibel at science@collegian.com or on Twitter @allie_seibel_.