Super Bowl of livestock raising has 11,000 youth exhibitors this year in Fort Worth
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2023 Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo
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The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo is known for its western entertainment, but for youth exhibitors the stock show is like the Super Bowl of livestock raising.
Thousands of junior livestock exhibitors from across the state will travel to the Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo, which starts Friday and runs through Feb. 4, in hopes of selling sheep, goats, pigs and steers they’ve raised.
This year’s Junior Livestock Show has roughly 11,000 youth exhibitors. Matt Brockman, Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo communications manager, said 230 of Texas’ 254 counties represented in last year’s show.
Guests coming to Will Rogers Memorial Center can view livestock brought by exhibitors in the livestock barns between National Cowgirl Museum & Hall of Fame and the Kit and Charlie Moncrief Building.
Who competes in the livestock show?
Junior livestock exhibitors are part of educational programs offered through high school curriculums for Future Farmers of America, or FFA, and agriculture science programs, Brockman said. Exhibitors also go through 4-H youth development chapters and clubs at the county and community level with an emphasis on raising animals for the food system.
Competitors must be actively enrolled in a 4-H program and be between the ages of nine and 18.
“These young men and women are really no different than any adult farmer or rancher that’s producing food for our nation and our world,” Brockman said.
Livestock exhibitors are not exclusively from rural areas. Brockman said the Arlington Heights Agricultural Science program through Fort Worth ISD offers a facility for students to keep livestock like sheep, goats, steers with the goal to eventually sell them into the food production system.
“That’s the emphasis of the program and the important aspect of the program because regardless of whether this young man or woman is coming from a rural area or urban area, suburban area, they are provided a gateway, often referred to as an incubator, into the modern food production system,” he said.
Is there a deadline to enter the livestock show?
Entries for the 2023 livestock show were accepted starting Sept. 15 and had a hard deadline of Nov. 15 with no late applications accepted, a lesson five Denton County families learned the hard way.
NBCDFW previosuly reported one Denton County family submitted their entries and fees through Denton County’s 4-H Program but due to an office error the submissions were not accepted.
Brockman told NBCDFW in a statement that the 60-day submission window had to be applied equitably for the roughly 30,000 entries in all the various shows and competitive events. Exceptions to the rule would set a precedent that would make enforcing the submission window difficult, he said.
Who gets the money from winning livestock bids?
Youth exhibitors get the full amount of money from the winning bid on their livestock. The animal is then sold to a meat processing company and the proceeds are often donated to the Fort Worth Stock Show syndicate’s scholarship fund.
“We’re really proud of the role that we play in providing a gateway, an incubator if you want to call it, for these young men and women to experience what livestock production is about, food production is about and the responsibilities that go along with that, which are very serious and important,” Brockman said
Are the winning livestock bids tax deductible?
Yes, Brockman said winning livestock bids are tax deductible.
This story was originally published January 9, 2023 at 2:53 PM.
