Purina® Honor® Show Chow® visits the State Fair of Texas® to educate youth about exhibiting livestock at their Show Ring Success Seminar Tuesday, Oct. 1. By attending the seminar, youth like Bailey Riley of Guadalupe County 4-H hope to gain valuable knowledge they can apply in the show ring.
“I am hoping to become more educated about showing livestock that will help me in years to come,” Riley said.
At the seminar, experienced leaders from National Purina Honor Show Chow and the Southwest Show Team present knowledge and tips about four species including: swine, lambs, goats and cattle. The knowledge and tips range from techniques on clipping and shearing to tips on showmanship.
“I learned lots of useful information and the Purina Honor Show Chow leader did a great job of presenting the information about lambs,” Caitlyn Billups, sophomore of Mount Pleasant FFA, said.
Live animal demonstrations provided youth with a hands-on experience to demonstrate feeding, grooming habits and showmanship techniques in a way that kids can understand.
“The whole purpose of the 4-H and FFA program is to show them that it is not necessarily about what we can go out and win, it is about what we are teaching these kids and that is responsibility,” Purina Honor Show Chow Southwest Customer Marketing Specialist, Taw Wayne Dunham, said.
Purina has been at the State Fair of Texas for the past three years and hopes to be back for years to come.
“You can’t place a value on it because we are educating the youth and that is why we are here,” Dunham said.
The seminar was brought to the State Fair of Texas by a variety of sponsors and through their generosity $1500 worth of prizes were awarded at the seminar.
Billups said the prizes made the seminar worth her while as she walked away with a new lamb halter, a new bottle of soap and new insight on exhibiting livestock.
Seminars such as this one help our youth gain knowledge about not only exhibiting livestock but other the personal qualities you will walk away with. These seminars have great value and are going to be a significant part of agriculture education for years to come.