The show must go on

The Guadalupe County Youth Livestock and Homemakers Show is officially underway

(Seguin) — While most of us were wrapped in blankets and keeping warm inside our homes, hundreds of area youth were reportedly braving the cold temperatures and preparing their projects for this year’s Guadalupe County Youth Livestock and Homemakers Show.

The annual show which will feature students from all across Guadalupe County gets underway this morning at the Guadalupe County Fairgrounds. Today’s show schedule includes rabbits, goats and poultry (turkeys and broilers).

Despite the freezing temperatures, this week’s arctic blast is not stopping this year’s show from having another successful year. That’s according to Megan Reiley, the co-secretary for the 501(c)(3) non-profit organization.

“We are still starting. The weather is absolutely freezing but we are kind of sifting, kind of making things work. The biggest thing is our first show of the day is the rabbit show and typically that starts at 7:30 a.m. check-in, weigh-in, kind of start the judging. We have pushed that back to 9 a.m. just to account for a little more time for people to get out here and get in here slowly. Things could warm up a little bit and then also the rabbits typically show in the rodeo arena but because there is no sunshine and there’s a lot of wind out there, we have shifted and adjusted things so the rabbits are going to be showing in our cattle and goat holding pen barn where those animals normally hold so a little more wind blockage, cover again just to try to get the kids and spectators as much out of the wind and elements as we possibly can,” said Reiley.

Reiley says this week’s weather and youth show should serve as reminders of why the world of agriculture is so very important to each of us.

“We started Sunday with our set-up of the facilities which was kind of the first big cold day and whether it was kids, exhibitors, parents, FFA advisors, volunteers, everybody was down there in freezing cold weather and we kind of just started prepping things and it was just really funny to kind of hear the rumblings of while people were working getting things ready to go. They were taking phone calls of ‘yeah, I need to get out to this piece of property and get water running and wrap pipes’ and getting everything ready for the animals because the livestock industry does not stop. These animals have to be fed. They have to be well taken care of and I think that’s kind of the beauty of what we are teaching these kids through this program too is the responsibilities, the hard work and even when it’s really really hot outside and you don’t want to be working your animals and even when it’s freezing cold outside and you are breaking ice troughs and things like that, it’s the responsibly and those life lessons that these kids are learning about how to take care of these animals which we are seeing it full force this week which I think it is kind of a cool full circle moment for some of these kids because this is what they work for all year and this is kind of the ultimate sacrifice that they are seeing this week which I think is kind of neat,” said Reiley.

The cold weather will also not be cutting down on the number of fans who want to show their support during this year’s show. Reiley says thanks to a couple of sponsors, online viewing of the shows will again be made available starting today.

“We do have the livestream sponsored again this year. It’s sponsored by MT Heart Livestock and D&D Outfitters which has been really great so if you have grandparents, parents who really don’t want to come out into the cold, we will be posting that link as soon as it goes live. That will go live, hopefully, this morning we will have that link. Again, we will post it on all of our social media and you can send that link throughout. Everybody can watch the show from the warmth of their home,” said Reiley.

As of right now, Reiley says she does not know of any other possible changes to this year’s show schedule. Changes, if any however, will be announced as soon as possible.

“There is a few questionable shows — if we are going to move things back, move locations — nothing else has been determined yet. We are going to be making those calls as we go through the week. The biggest thing we are telling people is just stay tuned to our Facebook and webpage and as soon as we make those calls, we are posting those things on Instagram, Facebook, websites so if you are wondering if something has been moved or changed, if can’t get a hold of an advisor or somebody like that, definitely check out the Guadalupe County Youth Show Facebook page because that’s going to be the first spot for us getting any changes, edits, information out to everybody,” said Reiley.

This year’s youth show wraps up at noon Saturday with the annual auction sale at the Seguin Events Center Dance Slab.

The Seguin Daily News on Wednesday will continue its coverage of the 2024 Guadalupe County Youth Livestock and Homemakers Show. It will dive more into the number of exhibitors participating this year and the importance of the overall program.

This year’s schedule calendar is available online at gcys.org.