Friday, March 23, 2012

Cattle Show or Rock Concert?

You decide.

One of the photos
I took at OYE. 
Last week, I was in Oklahoma for a junior livestock show Oklahoma Youth Expo. It is the largest junior livestock show in the world, and both 4-H and FFA members have the opportunity to show. That means there were a lot of kids there, and even more pigs, cows, lambs and goats. Yeah it maybe smelled it a little by the end of the week, but it is pretty cool to know that agriculture is in the hands of these kids. And even if they don't remain in agriculture I like to think that they will go onto be pretty great people in their communities.

Now watch this. I promise it is nothing like you have ever seen - well unless you were there ;)



Now if you are wondering what in the world just happened. In each species breed or weigh division is selected, and they all come together for the Grand Drive. That is when they choose the overall champions. You can see that happening in the next two videos. The Oklahoma Youth Expo is really unique because they work on highlight youth as much as they do the livestock.



These are all market animals so this is ultimately the end of the road for them. The grand champion steer brought $60,000. Now that is not market price, and there is a good chance that those people paid $10,000 for the steer. What is the best part about this show is that they really work hard to gather up scholarship dollars for the participants. The company I work for is one of those sponsors. One of our $1,500 scholarships went to a freshman in high school. If she can get one of those every year she'll have a nice little chunk of change to put towards college.

4 comments:

  1. Simply put—the coolest thing ever. I take for granted that I have been able to participate in this awesome show as a youth but now as a 4-H extension educator. You took some great pictures during the show, loved seeing your work.

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  2. So awesome. For the youth and agriculture. Making memories that they will never forget.

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  3. I loved this post Crystal! I've never been able to go to OYE, but now I really want to! What a fun show!

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  4. I'm proud to call Illinois home, but our livestock shows don't compare to this. AWESOME!

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