Farms.com Home  › News

This is What Showing Livestock is All About

Stock show kids are cut from a different mold. Driven by a purpose greater than themselves, they know it's up to them to help their animals thrive. I don’t know why this changes something in them, but it seems to equip them with an internal drive to push harder and work longer than others. In the end, they walk with a greater confidence and perspective. 

I think that’s why I love writing about young people who show livestock. Although their stories are different, common themes emerge.

  • A desire to help other people. 
  • A willingness to ask questions and seek to improve. 
  • A relentless pursuit of their dreams. 
  • A commitment to work harder than expected.
  • A belief in passing on what they’ve learned to others.
Click here to see more...

Trending Video

We Let Dad Drive a 50,000 Pound Dump Truck

Video: We Let Dad Drive a 50,000 Pound Dump Truck



There's old hog barns under that field now. The old hog barn site on the farm has been sitting there for decades, and this is the week it finally came out: concrete pad, burn pile, charred lumber, all of it loaded into a CAT 725C rock truck and buried in a pit we dug back in the timber.

Tork's been waiting his whole life to drive one of these, so he gets the keys to a 50,000 pound rock truck and I ride shotgun. The excavator loads, the dozer clears the timber, the drone shows the whole site from above, and by sundown there's nothing left of the old place but a smooth patch of dirt. It's a weird feeling erasing something that was here before either of us, but the farm has to keep moving.