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MERCEDES — The steer, all gray and monolithic in size, bellowed as his owner struggled with its rope.
“I have been working … every day feeding him,” said Elijah Moreno, 18, a senior at Los Fresnos High School.
“I’ve been feeding him over 50 pounds of feed a day,” added Elijah, who looked forward to showing his steer at the Rio Grande Valley Livestock Show and Rodeo 2024.
Monday morning at the showgrounds there was a freshness and a vitality as students and parents and teachers prepared for another week of rodeo riders, ag students, market lambs, hogs and food. The smell of funnel cakes and turkey legs and pizza and nachos and burgers permeated the air, carnival rides waited for the coming hour when gleeful kids would line up, and the popping of accordion riffs created a festive and optimistic spirit.
The bellowing of cattle and the bleating of lambs and the scraping and soft hum of conversations signaled something at once new and familiar. The time-honored tradition of livestock show transforms itself each year into a new manifestation of the event as new students and new personalities create new and unique experiences.
“I am very hyped and very excited,” said Analyssa Sanchez, 15, a freshman at Nikki Rowe High School in McAllen.
“I am showing a market lamb,” she continued. “I’ve been practicing with them, giving them their vitamins to help keep them in good shape.”
The lambs seemed to be a rather rambunctious lot. Suddenly three bolted from their stalls and charged down an alleyway leading three rather alarmed teenage girls chasing after them. One of the lambs, which was quickly apprehended, wore a colorful flowered body sleeve, while others paced their stalls in black as if in dark anticipations of their ultimate fates. They were market animals after all.
The sale of these animals will take place Saturday, but between Tuesday and Saturday throngs of agriculture students and FFA students from throughout Texas would show their goats and their heifers and their rabbits and their chickens to judges and an adoring public.
Summer Terry and her mother Amanda busily racked the sod in a stall in preparation for the arrival of three livestock show animals.
“I have to bed down all three of them,” said Summer, 18, of San Perlita, indicating the stress of such multiple responsibilities.
But…
“I am trying to savor it because it’s my last year,” Summer said.
While this may be the final season for Summer and Elijah, it’s very much the beginning for others.
