Showing livestock a family affair for some

Feb. 15—Fourth-grader Jessie Farmer said she got some "great brotherly advice" before showing her black Angus heifer Saturday at the Fort Gibson Livestock Show.

"He taught me how to tie her up," said Jessie, a 4-H Club member in her first year of showing.

Dozens of 4-H Club and FFA members exhibited their heifers, steers, lambs, goats and sheep in the show. Exhibitors received all kinds of help from family members as they prepared their animals.

Eighth-grader David Farmer brushed aside the good advice he gave sister Jessie.

"If she does good, I taught her everything she knows," David said. "If she doesn't do good, then I didn't teach her anything."

Ninth-grader Michael Hix got help from his cousin Gunner while grooming his pig,

"It's really cool," Michael said. "He wants to learn how to show, and I tell him how to brush it."

Blakely Varnell of Muskogee helped her older cousin, seventh-grader Chloe Hill, brush her pig.

Ultimately, however, exhibitors were on their own in showing their animals.

Sixth-grader Remington Cooper couldn't narrow down the hardest part of preparing his Chianina heifer for show.

"It's all pretty simple, probably clipping," he said.

He added that showing is his favorite part of competing — and winning is his favorite part of showing.

Ninth-grader Emma Gifford, who has shown since age 9, said she has worked hard preparing her dorset advantage ewe for show.

"We work them three times a week, we cut them three times a week, we feed them morning and night," she said. "It's definitely a lot of hard work."

There's more work left.

The Muskogee County Livestock Show runs Feb. 22 to 26. The Muskogee Regional Junior Livestock Show runs Feb. 28 to March 5.