For the Love of Livestock

Showing livestock, as so many youth and families in North Carolina do, is not an easy thing. It is not as simple as walking an animal around a ring, accepting a ribbon, and having your picture taken. The days are long and include hours working with your animal, making sure it stands just so. These hours are longer when that goat or steer decides to be exasperatingly stubborn and rebellious. The work is hard. Many a showman have earned their share of blisters from shoveling manure or playing tug of war with an animal. The experience is messy. Mud-caked boots…

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Youth care for livestock projects in rain, snow, and shine

Following is a guest post from Marisa Linton. Marisa grew up showing and raising livestock, and currently lives on her family’s small farm in Mount Olive. She has shown animals at the N.C. State Fair for 14 years and is a past youth livestock scholarship recipient. She is an N.C. State University graduate, agricultural photographer and blogger. The beginning of the year brought snow with it to North Carolina. There were many excited kids playing in the snow and relishing the delay and cancellation of school. In many parts of the state, children were making snow cream, attempting to build…

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