Last week, students competed in the Leon County livestock show. They showed animals that they have spent the past year raising and training.

“I love competing in the show because it shows all of our hard work,” junior Makayla Gilliam said. “It is no easy task taking care and raising animals.”

There was a variety of animals showed at the livestock show. Animals ranged from rabbits, steers, and heifers to goats, chickens and pigs.

“I showed my chickens with the help of Marshal and Melanie,” Gilliam said. “I did pretty good; I got Big Bird and Showmanship.”

Showmanship involves not only showing the animal, but also being questioned by the judge on how they raised their animal and worked with them.

“I was a bit nervous when I was being interviewed,” Gilliam said. “However, I knew that I had nothing to be scared of because I had raised my chickens right.”

Animals were not the only things on display; the ag mechanics students entered their 32’x6’ trailer, and junior Peyton Graves showed a pit he built.

“It was a lot of hard work making the trailer,” junior Riley Webb said. “We started building it from scratch, and we had to get all the parts from different places.”

Every boy had their own job. Some of them grinded the metal, others welded the pieces together and some painted the finished product.

“I helped with the wiring,” Graves said. “My favorite part, though was welding the trailer together.”

The hard work and expenses paid off because the boys received reserve champion. They said they would have gotten first but they forgot their blueprint for the judges.

“All of the gruesome work payed off once the final product was up,” Webb said. “Made us proud to finally get it done.”