Micah Jones has some little lambs, but they don’t follow him everywhere he goes.
That would be too easy.
Before he brought them to the Wasatch County Fair and presented them to a livestock judge this week, he had to learn to walk them by holding and guiding their heads, brace against them to show their muscles to a livestock judge, and otherwise become comfortable with them throughout the summer.
For a 10-year-old kid with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, his moms Jacie and Meagan Luke said that’s a pretty big task.
Meagan said her son’s participation in the 4-H program is in accordance with family tradition. Her dad, a lamb farmer, got into the scene over 30 years ago.
“Me and all of my siblings started. It was a very small town back then,” she said. “It was the thing to do, to raise animals.”
She explained that the livestock projects are meant to teach kids responsibility, patience and other life skills.
Today, her dad still has a farm in Malad where he raises and sells lambs. Her and her three sisters’ kids have started raising animals of their own.
“It benefited me to learn how to take care of other things. You have to learn how to be independent, how to get over nerves,” Meagan said. “You really see these kids come a long way from the time they start having these beings that they have to take care of until they graduate (Future Farmers of America) at 18. It just builds a lot of character.”
Micah said the biggest lesson he learned was patience. If he got frustrated with his animals, he soon found that they got frustrated with him and became rambunctious enough to drag him around.
He had to learn how to stay calm with them before he took them to the fair if he wanted to impress the livestock judge.
This year, that judge was Brock Burch out of Stephenville, Texas. He’s been around livestock his entire life, and he judged his first show at 18 years old — nearly 30 years ago.
As a high school agriculture teacher and FFA adviser, he’s taken livestock teams to national and international competitions.
He said youth livestock projects are about more than putting meat in the marketplace, though there’s certainly a fair amount of that after Saturday’s FFA Livestock Sale, but also about teaching kids responsibility as they feed, train, doctor, clean and present their animals.
“I like to think that I provide a positive influence to them and give them words of encouragement, whether you’re first place or last in a class,” he said. “I just believe in youth programs and try to give back however I can and provide input for young people. It’s just something I enjoy doing.”
He sees the value of youth livestock programs on a more personal level as well, as his own kids raise animals of their own throughout their summers.
“I make them raise livestock because I want them to take care of things more than just themselves. I want them to learn how to be responsible for another living being,” he said. “I want them to be selfless and, you know what, when they become good at something, I want them to hand that knowledge down to somebody else.”
It helps them learn how to commit to things, he said, and teaches them the value of work.
If his kids want to stay up till midnight in the summer, he said that’s fine. But come the next morning, they still have an animal depending on them, and he still expects them not to let that animal down.
“You still have animals to feed,” he said. “You’re still going to get out of bed at the same time. … People that have livestock projects have to learn how to do that.”
Wednesday, one of Micah’s two lambs placed 16th overall, and they placed first and second in their individual weight classes.
In showmanship — which is judged independently of the quality of an animal — Micah took seventh in the junior category.
Though animals come with their frustrating moments, Micah and his moms are excited for next year’s projects. In a few years, his little sister, Harper, will join him with an animal of her own.
“We always get excited to start back up the next year,” Meagan said.
