May is National Beef Month and it’s typically a time to celebrate those who are beef producers, but it’s also a time to highlight those who show cattle as well.

Greene County Senior 4-H’er Kayla Muir shows commercial, simmental and shorthorn cattle at the county and state fairs. She’s been showing cattle since third grade and is also part of her family’s business of showing and selling cattle with Muir Farms. She points out when you are showing a calf at a fair, you break the calf in to lead them and show it to a judge. Muir adds you can sell cattle for others to take them to shows or other people can raise them and then have them produced for consumption.

4-H’er and eighth grader Parker Fitzpatrick has been showing cattle for five years and he shows shorthorns, angus and charolais. He adds that he’s looking forward to showing his two younger siblings how to show cattle in 4-H. He talks about why he was interested in showing cattle.

“Well my dad always told me that it’s really fun and I like cows, they’re like my favorite animal. And they’re pretty fun to work with.”  

Muir explains the benefits of showing cattle while in 4-H.

“You learn a lot of responsibility and you have a lot of fun. Yeah you might not do the best everytime, but you meet a bunch of new people and you make a lot of connections with people that will help you further out in life.”

To further support the 4-H beef program, the Greene County Fair Association recently completed a capital improvement project to build a new beef barn and beef pen-of-three facility last year.