The students of the Pilot Point FFA got an early look at their animals’ and mech projects’ strengths and weaknesses as they head into this year’s show season on Saturday morning.
The local show, which the Pilot Point ag team uses as a dry run for students, gives the kids an opportunity to get in the ring for real and have their work judged by industry professionals without the stakes of a major show and impending sale.
“It’s a good way to start off your major stock show season before we get in the thick of it,” Anna ISD ag teacher and livestock judge Christian Purcell said. “I like that we give the kids one more time in the ring so that all their hard work doesn’t go to waste.”
He explained that the criteria he looks for differs from what judges are looking for at a major show where a sale is the end goal.
“The things we look for are our muscling indicators, so when we’re here at the local show, we focus a little more on the structure side of things because we’re judging the future of that animal,” Purcell said.
One animal, a goat, he judged to have a bright future was showed by Peytyn Goodin. Goodin won grand champion goat, though was lower in the running in showmanship as her critter started fighting her late in the round.
“I’ll just work with him more on getting used to all the prongs and put in on the stands more, sit with him on those stands to help him brace higher and get used to that posture,” Goodin said. “I’m definitely more confident going into county now.” Another local grand champion, Hunter Tidwell, seldom left the ring when the pigs got their turn. Hunter showed more than his own animals.
“He could be playing select baseball, but what do you learn doing that?” Glynn Tidwell said as he watched his son work. “You learn baseball but even here he’s showing pigs for other kids, which teaches teamwork. They learn a lot by doing it. It teaches them everything, work ethic, time management and responsibility.”
It wasn’t just the animals on display Saturday morning as, up at the mech barn, judges, including school board member Craig Bickers, were picking through the projects with a fine-tooth comb.
“Hearing from industry professionals really helps them too and reinforces practices like wearing your PPE, working properly with materials and things like that,” lead ag teacher Bailee Greiner said. “It’s really good practice to get feedback before their big shows like county, which is the main show for a lot of these kids.”
Juniors Ethan Scott and Ricardo Rodriguez, who built a standing height fire pit with burnt wood, polycrylic sealed counter, commented on the value of their project getting a good look over from outside sources before taking it to show.
“It really shows us what we need to improve on and how we can improve the project before we go on to San Antonio,” Scott said.
The pair shared they plan to go bigger for their final year, “something to do with hunting, maybe a trailer,” they said in unison.
Greiner explained that the mech kids get most of the same value out of working their projects as kids in the barn get raising their animals, though there is an added level in the form of industry skills for the former.
“They learn a lot of the same practices, except ag mech projects require learning engineering practices as well,” Greiner said “The kids had to learn how to work with different materials they’ve never worked with, cut these projects down and rework them. It’s industry skills.”
