Paso Robles FFA prepares for animal showings at the fair and elects new officers

Liam Clark and Briley Bowen share their livestock preparations for the Mid-State Fair

Brian Arndt, Health Editor

May 3, 2024

Paso Robles FFA prepares for animal showings at the fair and elects new officers

From September to July current freshman Liam Clark (9) works every day after school preparing his steer, a young cow, to show at the fair and eventually sell. During the month of April preparations grow in intensity as the summers grows closer:

This massive time commitment is what many FFA students are participating in.

“For someone like me who has a lot of sports and school going on, to also find time to do this steer project is also a pretty heavy chunk of time,” said Clark. To prepare his steer Clark feeds it about 150 pounds of food a week. He has to wash him multiple times a week and rinse him every day. Clark trains the steer to walk correctly and pose to highlight his features for possible buyers.

Liam explains the hardest part of the preparation for him is finding the time: “(From) now to fair every day I am going to spend a couple hours a day working on him (the steer).”

Sophomore, Briley Bowen is showing replacement heifers for a third year. A heifer is a young female cow that will eventually give birth. At the moment she is working on getting the heifer to gain more weight. She says her favorite part of showing livestock is seeing her hard work pay off.Bowen explains some of the more difficult parts of the process.:

“The hardest part about raising and showing livestock is training them, some are gentler than others, but aside from that it’s having to sell them,” she said.

As the time grows shorter till the fair arrives Clark and Bowen will prepare their animals for an impressive and possible profitable showing.

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About the Contributor

Brian Arndt, News Co-Director

Junior Brian Arndt is news co-director of Crimson Newsmagazine. This is his second year in the program. Arndt’s favorite part of the class is enjoying food with his friends while doing journalism.Outside of school, he loves running, hiking, and days of the beach.