In the Houston area there are some this way for pigs at least. A group of breeders put together a truck load of 30-60 head. The kids draw numbers and pick their pig. All head cost 300 (last I saw this was 2018).

CanyonAg77 said:

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Years ago, I heard a suggestion:

Chapter or county level shows only. A pen of animals is purchased for all who want to show, pick your animal by lottery, raise it, then show it at the end of the year.

Seems like an idea to revisit.

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My son is raising a lamb for his chapter show. This is exactly how they do it. All the kids animals are at the chapter barn. It's his first year, and I have zero lamb experience, but everyone supports and helps each other out. I hate to hear that this kind of thing is prevalent in the bigger shows.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Years ago, I heard a suggestion:

Chapter or county level shows only. A pen of animals is purchased for all who want to show, pick your animal by lottery, raise it, then show it at the end of the year.

Seems like an idea to revisit.

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I raised chickens in 4-H. The first couple of years, it was exactly as you describe. Everyone going to the county show put in an order for 25 chicks from the same place. They were delivered all at once to the local feed store.

The county show was a great experience for me. I had to present my pen directly to the judge and answer his questions. I didn't place high, but I did make the auction both years.

I then decided to go to The Show at the Astrodome. Had my choice of several hatcheries to order from. They were shipped by mail. The chicks can easily survive the first day or two without food or water. My mother had a friend at the local post office, and I was able to pick them up early the day they came in.

Instead of being a few dozen entries, there were hundreds. Registration and check-in was a nightmare. I wasn't allowed to be present for the first round of judging. I didn't make the cut, and I got a check for the market rate of the birds. I got nothing out of it but waiting in a long line one day.

Going to The Show is probably something best done by those who have placed high at the county level first.

Not a new idea unfortunately.

In the early 90's my brother had a show pig that looked the best and should have won our local school ffa show in Houston.

The night before he was supposed to be moved to the show barn someone went into his stall and beat the pig with a bat until he couldn't walk. No grand champion and spot in the auction for you. We had a pretty good idea of who did it, but never could prove it.

CanyonAg77 said:

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Years ago, I heard a suggestion:

Chapter or county level shows only. A pen of animals is purchased for all who want to show, pick your animal by lottery, raise it, then show it at the end of the year.

Seems like an idea to revisit.

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Im thinking way back to my days in Dumas in the late 80s/early 90s, and they may have done it this way.

aggie0959 said:

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In the Houston area there are some this way for pigs at least. A group of breeders put together a truck load of 30-60 head. The kids draw numbers and pick their pig. All head cost 300 (last I saw this was 2018).

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A lot of the larger chapters do this, now and honestly it's better this way. The lottery goats are now $500, though, and going up every year. People are spending stupid money on freaking goats (and everything else) of all animals and it's getting to where even the commercial does are outrageous.
I saw some comments from the victim's family about how you can't even cheat and while I sympathize completely with the victim, there is rampant cheating across all species. Even broilers which are the most level playing field are getting packed with illegal substances. Hopefully this girl gets some jail time.

B-1 83 said:

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CanyonAg77 said:

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Years ago, I heard a suggestion:

Chapter or county level shows only. A pen of animals is purchased for all who want to show, pick your animal by lottery, raise it, then show it at the end of the year.

Seems like an idea to revisit.

---

Im thinking way back to my days in Dumas in the late 80s/early 90s, and they may have done it this way.

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Its Dumbass

County shows are not without fault either. My one experience 40 years ago was that if you made the sale but had not gone to the trouble of lining up a buyer(s) you basically got market price. My ag teacher didn't tell me that important part. Consequently at the last second I went and talked to the bookkeeper for the local feed store at the last minute. She had been their delegate to bid on animals at the show because the owner hadn't bothered to show for the sale. She was the only buyer I knew and consequently the only bidder on my animal. So when my animal sold, it barely covered the cost of the animal plus feed, not to mention I had bought all my feed from the buyer and my dad did tons of business with them.

The lesson I learned from showing animals and making money is that it is about 25% physical labor and about 75% building a relationship with a buyer.

Joseph Freshwater, Sr said:

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aggie0959 said:

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In the Houston area there are some this way for pigs at least. A group of breeders put together a truck load of 30-60 head. The kids draw numbers and pick their pig. All head cost 300 (last I saw this was 2018).

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A lot of the larger chapters do this, now and honestly it's better this way. The lottery goats are now $500, though, and going up every year. People are spending stupid money on freaking goats (and everything else) of all animals and it's getting to where even the commercial does are outrageous.
I saw some comments from the victim's family about how you can't even cheat and while I sympathize completely with the victim, there is rampant cheating across all species. Even broilers which are the most level playing field are getting packed with illegal substances. Hopefully this girl gets some jail time.

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Rolling bb's or buckshot to chickens to get them all to an equal weight was very common when I showed. As for steers, steroids, masking agents, tranquilizers, pumping air under the skin, cutting the jump muscle on the top of the hips to level out the hips, were all things I knew about when I showed.

Burdizzo said:

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County shows are not without fault either. My one experience 40 years ago was that if you made the sale but had not gone to the trouble of lining up a buyer(s) you basically got market price. My ag teacher didn't tell me that important part. Consequently at the last second I went and talked to the bookkeeper for the local feed store at the last minute. She had been their delegate to bid on animals at the show because the owner hadn't bothered to show for the sale. She was the only buyer I knew and consequently the only bidder on my animal. So when my animal sold, it barely covered the cost of the animal plus feed, not to mention I had bought all my feed from the buyer and my dad did tons of business with them.

The lesson I learned from showing animals and making money is that it is about 25% physical labor and about 75% building a relationship with a buyer.

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When I made the auction, likewise 40 years ago, it wasn't big money. A few hundred bucks both time. It certainly didn't cover the costs that my parents had spent on animals and food, but they of course let me keep the auction money. I used it to buy a computer.

I guess in my way of thinking, you don't go into 4-H or FFA as a money-making exercise. I mean there are certainly lessons on expenses and profit as you describe, but like any childhood activity there is a cost involved. You put your kids in it for the experience, not to make money.

Burdizzo said:

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County shows are not without fault either. My one experience 40 years ago was that if you made the sale but had not gone to the trouble of lining up a buyer(s) you basically got market price. My ag teacher didn't tell me that important part. Consequently at the last second I went and talked to the bookkeeper for the local feed store at the last minute. She had been their delegate to bid on animals at the show because the owner hadn't bothered to show for the sale. She was the only buyer I knew and consequently the only bidder on my animal. So when my animal sold, it barely covered the cost of the animal plus feed, not to mention I had bought all my feed from the buyer and my dad did tons of business with them.

The lesson I learned from showing animals and making money is that it is about 25% physical labor and about 75% building a relationship with a buyer.

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Next time try calling the Governor!

Damn you, Mark White!


FWIW, I have donated money to my old County show and San Antonio Livestock Show far in excess of the money I made from that swine forty years ago.

That is also true. The experience factor is largely unmeasurable.

I was able to parlay my FFA experience into a HLSR scholarship, which at the time was $8000 over four years. It made the difference between me being able to attend A&M and staying at home and attending SWT. That said my scholarship award was tenuous. I was not high enough in my FFA Area to get awarded and got put in a statewide pool of applicants. I was lucky enough to get one that way. My ag teacher commented that if I had shown a better profit on my projects, it would have looked better on the application.

The other lesson I learned was that profit comes hard in agriculture.

Burdizzo said:

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That is also true. The experience factor is largely unmeasurable.

I was able to parlay my FFA experience into a HLSR scholarship, which at the time was $8000 over four years. It made the difference between me being able to attend A&M and staying at home and attending SWT. That said my scholarship award was tenuous. I was not high enough in my FFA Area to get awarded and got put in a statewide pool of applicants. I was lucky enough to get one that way. My ag teacher commented that if I had shown a better profit on my projects, it would have looked better on the application.

The other lesson I learned was that profit comes hard in agriculture.

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I guess our relative expectations out FFA/4-H were different. For me it was an extra-curricular activity. I always knew I was going to study engineering, not poultry science.

It sounds like you were studying agriculture, so I can see how the FFA experience is important in the scholarship applications.

All major and many (most?) county poultry shows buy their chickens/turkeys from A&M. A&M sources them from commercial producers (mostly Tyson). These birds are as genetically identical as you can get. A&M wing bands the birds for ID. These wing bands rivet into place so that removing them and putting them onto different birds would be very difficult.

If you want fair, poultry shows are the most fair you can hope for. There is still cheating (a big one until A&M developed a feather test for it used to be feeding Pay Lean) but it's basically as good as you can get.

Several years ago some FFA kids in Ft. Bend County had some of their animals stolen out of their barn. Felt so bad I sent them some money to help replace them. Received a really nice hand written note from one of the students thanking me. Made my day.

Sad that there are sick individuals out there that want to kill and steal animals like that.

torrid said:

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Burdizzo said:

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That is also true. The experience factor is largely unmeasurable.

I was able to parlay my FFA experience into a HLSR scholarship, which at the time was $8000 over four years. It made the difference between me being able to attend A&M and staying at home and attending SWT. That said my scholarship award was tenuous. I was not high enough in my FFA Area to get awarded and got put in a statewide pool of applicants. I was lucky enough to get one that way. My ag teacher commented that if I had shown a better profit on my projects, it would have looked better on the application.

The other lesson I learned was that profit comes hard in agriculture.

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I guess our relative expectations out FFA/4-H were different. For me it was an extra-curricular activity. I always knew I was going to study engineering, not poultry science.

It sounds like you were studying agriculture, so I can see how the FFA experience is important in the scholarship applications.

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It was both. I grew up on a farm and liked the farm environment. What I really liked was the farm equipment. So, while my scholarship had to be used in the college of agriculture, I got a degree in agricultural engineering. As an adult, the donations in make to SALE are to the Ag Mechanics awards.

Ag mech is really where it's at, imo. My sons have done everything from contests to animals to ag mech and by far, ag mech is the most valuable in terms of technical and communication skills. Plus all of those projects are just fun to look at and talk with kids about.

Burnet County

Copied a Facebook post from a Lubbock TV station

Quote:

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Pete Christy, KCBD

Guys

The Anton Ag Department needs your help.

Somebody broke into the Ag Barn last night and cut the fence and stole all of the show goats that were set to go to the Hockley County Fair in a few weeks.

These Ag kids also had goats killed by a pack of dogs last fall and now their new goats have been stolen.

They want to get the information out as fast as possible so maybe the goats can be returned.

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CanyonAg77 said:

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Copied a Facebook post from a Lubbock TV station

Quote:

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Pete Christy, KCBD

Guys

The Anton Ag Department needs your help.

Somebody broke into the Ag Barn last night and cut the fence and stole all of the show goats that were set to go to the Hockley County Fair in a few weeks.

These Ag kids also had goats killed by a pack of dogs last fall and now their new goats have been stolen.

They want to get the information out as fast as possible so maybe the goats can be returned.

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Poco tiempo un grande pachanga en Anton!

Perhaps if Taylor Sheridan ever does his 6666 series this type chicanery getting out of hand might warrant a couple episode sub-plot.

plain_o_llama said:

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Perhaps if Taylor Sheridan ever does his 6666 series this type chicanery getting out of hand might warrant a couple episode sub-plot.

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Maybe drop them off at "The Train Station" in Yellowstone.