Benefits Of Showing Livestock

Showing livestock has many benefits people don’t realize. Have you ever thought about them? What an individual can gain, learn, and/or experience? Many people often feel showing livestock falls under two categories. One, it is just a waste of thousands of dollars, or two, we get meat from livestock. However, to the people who show, it is so much more than that. Showing livestock is what shapes our youth. They learn a tremendous amount of life lessons as well as a lot about themselves. Once someone starts showing livestock is in their blood and it will never leave.

Steve Niemeyer has all the info to back this argument up. To give you a little background on Niemeyer, he is a Nebraska Extension Educator and published his article on the University

There are many things that fall under this category. One would be sportsmanship. Sportsmanship in the show industry is a must. You must learn how to act, how to treat others, as well as how to react to certain situations. Most livestock showman don’t realize there are eyes watching them at all times. I found a quote on Pinterest that was very fitting. It said, “Somewhere in this barn there is a little kid that wants to be just like you someday. You owe it to them to be the best you can be.” This quote is also very fitting for how you handle a loss. Sure, every showman goes into the show ring thinking “I’m going to get the champion slap,” but when it comes down to it at the end of the day, there’s only one winner. Often there are many broken hearts as well as upset parents. But it is how the showman deals with the loss that matters. Nothing is more irritating than seeing someone lose and then throw a fit. What people prefer to see, including myself, is sportsmanship. Go up to the winner and congratulate them. There’s always going to be another show you can win. You would want people to remember how you handled the loss well, not how you stormed off and ignored everyone. No one like to lose, however the ones who handle losing the best are usually stock show kids. So, next time you’re at a sporting event look at the team that lost. The one on the losing team handling the loss the best will most likely be a livestock

By showing livestock individuals learn how to care about something other than themselves. Obviously, they learn to care about an animal, putting the animals needs before their own. But what I am talking about is so much deeper than that. Individuals who have shown livestock learn to care about others. They learn to always lend a helping hand when needed. This lesson is learned at a very young age and carried out through their lifetime. Most livestock showman who have learned this lesson, grow up to be farmers. When they become farmers, they take this benefit, along with all the others they’ve learned through out their life and implement them into their everyday life. One instance that really stands out to me and displays the caring benefit is the recent fires farmers had on the Texas panhandle. In early March fires broke out across the panhandle of Texas affecting Kansas, Texas, Colorado, and Oklahoma. At least five people were killed and 500,000 acres burnt to the ground, as well as many livestock killed according to amarillo.com. Many farmers saw what was going on and took action. They started donating anything they could to help. Some farmers even drove semi beds full of hay down the to panhandle to help. These gestures show just how caring livestock showman are. These farmers that helped as well as the ones who lost all their farm land were once young showman hoping to be farmers one