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Either at their homes or the Los Fresnos High School Agriculture Barn, Los Fresnos FFA students have been preparing their animals for the big shows coming up in the spring season.<\/p>\n
Others have been working diligently on arts and crafts projects.<\/p>\n
The spring schedule includes:<\/p>\n
Tip-O-Tex District FFA Show, San Benito Ag Complex, Friday, Jan. 16.<\/p>\n
Cameron County Livestock Show, Los Fresnos Rodeo Grounds, Feb. 5-7.<\/p>\n
Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show, Mercedes, March 12-20.<\/p>\n
Students from several schools will be showing their livestock.<\/p>\n
Senior Mike Cargill, president of the Los Fresnos FFA, has been showing animals since he was in the seventh grade.
\nHis family started with Santa Gertrudis cattle years ago, but now he has a bull, heifer and two sheep at the Ag Barn, and more animals at home.<\/p>\n
Cargill is very familiar with the responsibility of raising animals.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt takes putting your animals first. Whatever they need needs to be done before you can do anything else,\u201d Cargill said. \u201cBasically, they eat before we eat. You have to go outside and take care of them, no matter what the weather is like outside.\u201d<\/p>\n
Getting an animal fed and keeping their pens clean is like the practice before the game, which are the livestock shows. Shortly before each show, students have to wash their animals and shave them before showtime.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s basically like a beauty contest when it comes to get them ready to a show,\u201d Cargill said. \u201cFor lambs, you have to make sure their socks, which is the hair around the legs, are to perfection. We put oil on the lambs to get their hide loose. You have to put the lotion on their skin and keep it from getting wrinkled. With cattle, you have to scrub them down and shave them and slick them.\u201d<\/p>\n
Cargill plans to major in Engineering Technology at Tarleton State University. \u201cJust because you\u2019re in the Ag program doesn\u2019t mean you have to be an Ag major,\u201d Cargill said.<\/p>\n
Junior Austin White grew up around cows and chickens at his family\u2019s ranch in Bayview since he was very young and will be showing his cow and about 50 chickens.<\/p>\n
\u201cI recently got these chickens so I have a new task instead of just feeding my pig,\u201d said White, who plans to major in Range and Wildlife Management in college. \u201cThe chickens get excited when they see me ready to feed them every morning. Once I get home before I do my homework, I check on my pig and my chickens. It\u2019s just like a cycle every day.\u201d<\/p>\n
White, who won the biggest bird award at the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show last year, plans to show the chickens at the San Antonio Livestock Show in February at the AT&T Center. \u201cThe more they eat, the bigger they get.\u201d<\/p>\n
Senior Fernando Gonzalez is a rookie, and will be showing his dark-cross pig for the first time that he has owned for four months.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is my first year, and I\u2019m kind of nervous,\u201d Gonzalez said. \u201cI have buddies here who have done this since their freshman year. We live in a ranch now and ever since we had our first pig, I\u2019ve enjoyed raising it since it was a foot long to a full-grown pig now.<\/p>\n
The Livestock Shows are not just for animals. There are also arts and crafts shows, and students will be showing the projects they have been working on since the school year started.<\/p>\n
FFA BoatSenior Alberto Ochoa, who won first place in a metal art project at the RGVLS last year, is creating a shrimp boat out of wood to put on a clock. He will enter the project in the Home Furniture Division at the three shows and learned the trade from his father.<\/p>\n
\u201cMy dad has been working with his hands all his life,\u201d Ochoa said. \u201cHe is a welder, and carpenter and owns several shrimp boats. I want to work as hard as he has. He is my inspiration.\u201d<\/p>\n
Ochoa, who plans to study Business Management in college so that he can own his own business, plans to paint the boat white and red \u2013 his father\u2019s favorite colors.<\/p>\n
\u201cI will see what kind of offers I get at the shows,\u201d he said. \u201cIf it\u2019s not what I think it\u2019s worth, I won\u2019t sell it and give it to my father instead. I know he will enjoy it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Many students like Cargill who grew up on ranches plan to continue the legacies started by their parents and grandparents.<\/p>\n
\u201cI plan to have my own land breeding program at my future ranch, hopefully, and have animals to show for future generations.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Either at their homes or the Los Fresnos High School Agriculture Barn, Los Fresnos FFA students have been preparing their animals for the big shows coming up in the spring season. Others have been working diligently on arts and crafts projects. The spring schedule includes: Tip-O-Tex District FFA Show, San Benito Ag Complex, Friday, Jan. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":3209,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3208","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-lfcisd"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3208","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3208"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3208\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3210,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3208\/revisions\/3210"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3209"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3208"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3208"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/losfresnosnews.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3208"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}