Cyndi's Two Cents

Youth and showmanship

Commentary.

My friend Samantha Walker spent last week with me. After high school graduation next Spring, she plans to pursue a degree in agricultural communications and we thought it might be fun for her to spend some time “behind the scenes” at Brownfield Ag News. With county fair season and Brownfield’s recognition of ag youth for – among other things – their showmanship skills, I thought “who better than the President of the Illinois Junior Simmental Association and a skilled showman to write a piece about showmanship from a junior’s perspective?”

Miss Samantha knocked my socks off. We need future journalists like her to tell the story of agriculture. This is just too good to keep to myself.

Youth and Showmanship

By Samantha Walker

Danvers, Illinois

For many, showmanship provides a chance for the Youth of Agriculture to showcase their skills and capabilities as showmen. On the surface, it undoubtedly is. Showmanship places a focus on its participants’ presentation of themselves. It is a focus which breeds confidence, superiority, dedication, and an insatiable hunger to simply raise the bar.

The attentive care that the Agriculture industry extends towards the upbringing of its youth differentiates it from other industries and truly makes it stand apart. Countless hours are dedicated to the education, the skill development, and the enrichment of moral conduct of Agriculture’s youth through commendable organizations such as 4-H, FFA, and the individual junior associations found within specific species and breeds of livestock.

This environment nurtures the seeds of ambition found in every youth which, when paired with a love for agriculture and the country lifestyle, paves the way for improvement and growth within the Agriculture industry.

These seeds are planted at a young age in the hearts of Little Big Dogs. These children, too young to compete in the arena on show day like their older siblings and friends, know no fear of sharp teeth and heavy hooves. With determined attitudes seemingly too big for their little bodies, they set out to do anything and everything they can with a fierce loyalty and dedication found only in Little Big Dogs. Because if mommy and daddy can handle the cows, pigs, goats, etc. then so can they. Showmanship is their chance to prove that. It’s their chance to learn and improve upon their natural talents through experience.

But of course showmanship isn’t only for the Little Big Dogs, though arguably we are all Little Big Dogs at heart. The older participants need a chance to show off their skills too.

On a deeper level than showcasing skills and abilities is the understanding that showmanship, along with showing, brings about an apprehension of what competition truly is. It brings about the reality that sometimes it just isn’t enough to be perfect at what you are supposed to do. More often than not, not making mistakes and doing everything perfectly just doesn’t cut it. Being the best takes more than merely following the rules and standards that are set for you. It simply takes more than that.

Let an understanding of political and social dogmas inside and outside the show arena take root.

Participants who perceive that every moment spent in the public’s eye is a moment spent on display and who understand the implications of that are the ones who become the best. They understand the need to put an image of not only themselves, but of their farm and their associations out into the world. More importantly they realize that they are the ones expelling the image of the Agriculture industry’s future.

The strength it takes to hold a stubborn animal, the flexibility attained in dealing with each animal’s unique quirks, the poise kept under the scrutiny of judges’ eyes, and the endurance needed to do all this for as long as it takes all translates into real world skills needed to survive in any industry.

Through the nurturing of these skills showmanship showcases not only skill and capability. It showcases the future of the American Agriculture Industry. It’s a future strong enough to survive hardships and flexible enough to make changes when needed for as long as is needed with poise and virtue.