From Mrs. Jessica Stratton-
I wanted to take time and share what amazing kids we have here at PHS and what the Fair and Livestock Show entails for Agriculture these past few weeks.
Every year my FFA kids (mostly my officers and a few kids that want to participate) help with the horticulture fair entries the thursday before labor day. We meet at the fair building at 6:30 in the morning and check the crops in, dealing with many people in the community. It is a long, intensive day, and our kids are champs. Members of the community made many comments about how they love seeing the FFA/Ag kids there helping with the community.
This year was the first year we had an Ag barn at the Iron County Fair and I had a couple of my classes (7th graders) make posters about agricultural topics. They hit it out of the park and we were able to display these posters at the fair. Approximately 35000 people go to the fair, which is crazy.
The Livestock Show. For those of you who don't know, this is like State for kids who show animals. They get their animals (sheep, goat, pigs) in April/May (steers are earlier because they take longer to grow) and they work with their animals ALL summer. Walking them. Feeding them correct rations. Hoping that they make weight for the show. They get one weekend, three "game days" to show off all their hard work if their animal made weight. If it didn't make weight, they're out of luck and they learn a lesson on life. This years stockshow was a winner. Let me share some stats.
- 5 kids from our school/Parowan area showed Goats and made $6100 all together. One of the kids was 8th overall out of 60 goats.
- Kodie Stowell showed two steers and raked in a whopping $11,400. ONe of her steers was Grand Champion and weighed in at 1419 lbs (that's a big steer), her other steer was 11th overall at 1100 lbs (minimum weight, she almost didn't make weight for the show) This was out of47 steers.
- Lambs are crazy. There were 300 lambs at this show. When I tell you our livestock show is competitive, I mean it. Our kids could take their lambs to other shows and win, no questions asked. 14 of our Parowan kids were able to sell their lambs and made a total of $23,650.
- Cale Renzello was first in her class with both lambs and was 5th overall out of the show. That is wild, and she did awesome.
- Brance Douglas did not make weight with his lamb, but he still was able to show for showmanship. This is where the judge focuses primarily on how well the kids can show their animal. I commend him for that. It's so hard when your animal doesn't make weight and you're at a loss. Reese Burton lost her lamb halfway through the summer, and she was devastated. Again, it's a hard life when all your hard work is stopped short.
- Pigs - Kaisley Isaacson was 4th overall. We had 20 kids from Parowan show pigs out of 82 that sold. Together those kids made $48,250.
I know this email is lengthy, but if you see a stockshow kid, ask them about their weekend. They worked so hard. All together, the kids from Parowan made a total of $89,400. I don't know of a better way for kids to earn money but with a project that they see from beginning to the end. They earned every dollar.