HOUSTON --- Three area students---Kendall Koch and Lucy Smith of Henderson and Carlisle’s
Ricky Martin---helped propel the Kilgore College Livestock Show Team to a first-place finish for the Angus Herdsman Award
at the Houston Livestock Show during its 75th anniversary here recently.
The four-woman,
two-man Kilgore College team out-dueled 24 Angus breeders from six states and three universities to win the coveted award
at the world’s largest livestock show. In the process, they showed
the Reserve Champion Angus Senior Female and her two-week-old heifer calf.
During the
day of the event, these dedicated students arose from a deep, much-needed sleep at three o’clock in the morning to dress
and head for the show barn. But when your Angus heifers have an 8 a.m. show-ring
date with the cattle judge, you hit the ground running. Food can wait and there’s
no time to lose sipping coffee. Washing, fitting, and grooming the animals come
first. That’s the situation that confronted these young people as they
prepared the college’s four Angus entries for the open show.
The group’s
combined work ethic and team coordination made their sponsor Bob Young feel very good about his young team’s performance. “I couldn’t be more proud of the way these students worked together and
the efforts they put forth,” said Young, agriculture teacher and manager of the College’s 450-acre farm near Overton. Ironically, Young is an alumnus of Sam Houston State University, the school Kilgore
College had to beat to capture top herdsmanship honors. It was the first time
for Kilgore College to outpoint the Huntsville school in this category.
Show team
captain Clayton Hicks, a freshman from Carthage, likewise was pleased with the team’s overall performance. “I think we did well in keeping our focus and presenting the animals as best we cold to the show
judge,” said Hicks. “This show represents a lot of long hours and
hard work, but it is an excellent experience that each of us can build on. All
of us were extremely tired, but realized we could go to bed early that evening after supper…and we did.”
Other members
of the Kilgore College team include Dayla Ragsdale, Sulphur Bluff, sophomore, and Jennifer Hill, Rusk, freshman.
Good Herdsman
encompasses keeping the exhibitor’s area walkways swept clean and tidy at all times, maintaining the animal area free
from manure and foreign material, brushing the animals frequently to remove shavings or straw as they stand, and keeping the
promotional booth space clean, organized, and uncluttered. The judges prefer
to see exhibitors constructively busy around their exhibit area at all times as good working representatives of their ranch
or institution. Stock show visitors tend to form lasting impressions of the exhibitor’s
area, depending on how well it is kept.
Young said
prospective students might key in www.KilgoreCollegeAgFarm.org to view the Kilgore College
agriculture program in detail. Kilgore College is the current Texas Junior College
Agriculture Association “Chapter of the Year,” a distinction the school has attained for 12 of the past 15 years.
(Article published locally and provided
by writer, Ralph Ward Jr.)
