New Mexico State University’s College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences created a new community project to teach youth about the cattle industry and commercial beef production.
To accomplish their goal, numerous departments including Agricultural Economics and Agricultural Business, Animal and Range Sciences, Cooperative Extension Service and the Rex E. Kirksey Agricultural Science Center at Tucumcari collaborated to create the New Mexico Youth Beef Feeder Contest.
Designed to align with the New Mexico beef industry, the NM Youth Beef Feeder Contest teaches youth to raise cattle from start to finish while developing leadership skills. The goal of the contest is to increase access and diversity while enhancing the skills youth learn in other educational settings.
“The primary goal of the Youth Beef Feeder Contest is to enhance the educational value of the traditional 4-H and FFA beef projects by providing an affordable option that rewards production merit and carcass value of the market animal, along with accurate and complete record keeping, industry knowledge and public engagement by the participant,” said Halee Prather, Curry County 4-H and youth development agent.
The contest places an emphasis on the economic strategies to feed and develop livestock for markets, focusing on topics such as feed costs, average daily gains, feed conversions and management strategies. Additionally, leadership and public engagement opportunities such as a speech, informational poster and promotional video were included.
Participants completed the first phase of the contest March 19 when they dropped off calves at the NMSU Tucumcari science center to track the calves performance using the GrowSafe technology. The first phase included processing their calves by giving them vaccinations and ear tags, turning in a record book via Excel and presenting a speech relating to the beef cattle industry.
This is the first year of the beef feeder contest and it has brought in participants from different interests. According to Prather, 20 participants from 12 different New Mexico counties partook in the first phase of the contest. A survey showed that 96 percent of the participants learned a new fact about animal health, 99 percent learned new record-keeping skills and 88 percent became more confident in their public speaking abilities.
The winners of the first phase include Gavin Morrow, economic performance champion, senior speech champion and reserve high-point individual; Talynn Wood, animal performance champion and champion high-point individual; Talynn Wood and Kyle Wood, high-point record book champions; Kierra Neudorf, junior speech champion and fifth-place overall high-point individual; Kyle Wood, fourth-place overall high-point individual; and Trippton Angell, third-place overall high-point individual.
Their cattle will remain at the feedlot until September.