© 2024 Kansas City Public Radio
NPR in Kansas City
Play Live Radio
Next Up:
0:00
0:00
0:00 0:00
Available On Air Stations

At this 124-year-old livestock show, kids steal the spotlight with their prize animals

A young girl with a purple bow in her hair reaches out to her sheep. She is smiling animatedly and looking into the goat's eyes.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
San Antonio, Texas, native Allison Throckmorton, 8, shows off her sheep, Tornado, after competing at the American Royal.

Thousands of competitors come to the American Royal Livestock Show in Kansas City, Missouri, each year to show their best livestock. The competition includes children as young as 7 years old, who take part in a long tradition of raising and showing their animals.

Bre Engler, 9, peppers little kisses across the forehead of her cow, Kinsley, while she waits for her father to set up the stall’s bedding.

“Sometimes after we wash her and comb her and all that, I'll give her kisses all over,” she says.

A young girl sits on the ground behind a black heifer She is resting her right hand on his neck and looking at the camera.
Eva Tesfaye
/
KCUR 89.3
Bre Engler, 9, cuddles with her heifer, Kinsley. "I like coming to shows because I just get to see my friends and I get to introduce them to her and then she's all happy and excited."

Kinsley is just one of the many heifers in the stalling, the indoor area where the animals are kept before the show. Families set up tables and chairs while their cows’ relax in their stalls and they wait for the shows to start.

Engler, who has just finished washing her cow, is preparing to enter her in the showmanship competition, where the judges will be watching for how well she handles the animal when she leads it around the ring.

A line of young people walk with their goats on leashes into a dirt covered arena. Rows of American flags line the rafters above.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
Competitors in sheep showmanship display their animals for the judge during the American Royal Livestock Show.

“I feel pretty nervous and I have butterflies in my tummy, but as soon as I step in the ring, I feel like I'm home,” she says, “because when I’m in the ring with my cow, they just calm down and it’s my happy place.”

Over 4,000 head of cattle, sheep, hogs and goats arrived in Kansas City, Missouri, for the annual American Royal Livestock Show. The event, which is one of the largest in the nation, goes all the way back to 1899. Over 2,000 exhibitors, some as young as 7 years old, traveled from all over the United States to compete in competitions and show off their livestock.

Teenagers all wearing black T-shirts and blue jeans pose with the legs outstretched so as to hold their sheep in a pose. They are inside a large arena in a fenced-off area.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
Landon Witherow, 11, prepares to enter the ring with his market steer entry inside Hale Arena.

Nathan Lauden, the director of education for the American Royal says that doing shows like this instills not only a sense of responsibility in the kids, but also an understanding of agriculture.

“Absolutely we want these young people to hopefully stay involved in the food and agriculture industry,” he says. “If they don't, hopefully they have an appreciation for what it is afterwards.”

Just a floor above the cattle, the sounds of shears and blow dryers fill the stalling where the sheep and goats are kept. Andre Carter, 10, of Perkins, Oklahoma, dries his lamb, Bdub, so that he can shear it before the competition. Like many other youth exhibitors, showing livestock is a generational tradition for him.

A young boy holds up a black hose with both hands using a nozzle attached. he is blow drying a sheep that is hitched to a metal post. They are inside a large metal barn area surrounded by other cages with sheep and goats.
Eva Tesfaye
/
KCUR 89.3
Andre Carter, 10, blow dries his sheep prior to showing it off at the American Royal. "I'm looking forward to doing good with him, hopefully winning or placing at least, and just hoping he grows to be a good lamb," he says.

“I got into this because my dad showed lambs, my grandpa showed lambs and then my sister showed lambs and then I start showing lambs,” he says.

Carter has done other shows before, but this is his first time at the American Royal.

“Sometimes before I go to my class, I watch other people who are more experienced with sometimes better lambs and how they place and how they set up and how quick they do it.”

Riley Stucker, 18, from Lee County, Iowa, has many years of experience showing hogs. He weighs his pig in the Governors Exposition Hall while other exhibitors mill about around him, guiding their pigs to and from their pens.

A teenaged boy kneels inside a pen where the floor is covered with wood shavings. He is knelling next to a large, brown pig.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
Riley Stucker, 18, shows off his Duroc pig who he just brought in from weighing at the American Royal.

“It's more than just learning how to care for livestock,” he says. “One of the biggest things I've learned is dealing with your losses because the main thing we're doing here is trying to win a show, but you win way less shows than you'll ever lose.”

Going into his senior year of high school, this is one of his last shows, but he’s hoping to attend college for agriculture and continue working in the livestock show industry.

Closeup of a teenaged boy who is wearing a baseball cap. He appears to be looking off-camera and talking.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
Riley Stucker talks about what it takes to raise and show a pig for the American Royal livestock show. "It's very a big blessing in my life to be able to show these pigs that my parents never got the opportunity to do," he says.

“I sacrificed basically everything I had and I gave up all my sports and everything for this, so it's something that I really enjoy and hope to make something out of,” he says.

Many of the young people say that taking care of livestock takes a large amount of time and commitment, as they have to be exercised, groomed, watered and fed every day.

Catalina Cutshaw, 15, from Louisburg, Kansas, brought her lamb, Little Dale, to the show.

“Day to day wise, I work 'em every day,” she says, “I clipped him this morning and I washed him right before this and I brushed his legs.”

Catalina Cutshaw, center, ushers her sheep into the show ring at Hale Arena during the America Royal livestock show.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
Catalina Cutshaw, 15, ushers her sheep into the show ring at Hale Arena during the America Royal livestock show.

She waits in the holding ring of Hale Arena, where most of the animals are shown except for the hogs. The categories move quickly, with kids filing their sheep in and out of the ring. Bleats echo across the large arena over the sounds of the exhibitors chatting with their friends and family as they wait in the holding ring for their turn to show.

Before Cutshaw goes in, her grandmother presses a coin into her hand for good luck.

“I'm kind of nervous. My grandma just got here so I'm excited 'cause she drove all the way up here to watch me,” says Cutshaw.

A line of young people walk with their goats on leashes into a dirt covered arena. Rows of American flags line the rafters above.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
Competitors enter Hale Arena at the American Royal to show their market goats.

This is Allison Throckmorton’s first time at a large show. After her category, the 8-year-old from San Antonio, Texas, waits on the side of the ring to get her picture taken with her sixth-place ribbon and her lamb, Tornado.

“He didn't jump, he walked all the time, so I think that's good.”

A young girl with a purple bow in her hair reaches out to her sheep. She is smiling animatedly and looking into the goat's eyes.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
San Antonio native Allison Throckmorton, 8, playfully interacts with her sheep, Tornado, after competing at the American Royal. "He likes to chew on my belt," she says.

She says she loves doing livestock shows because she gets to bond with animals.

“I think it's fun having sheep because once you get to train him, he's not so crazy,” she says.

Caroline Andrews, waits with Picasso outside the show ring at the American Royal. Her buckle refects her grand champion award with another goat at a Texas livestock show.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
Caroline Andrews, waits with Picasso outside the show ring at the American Royal. Her buckle refects her grand champion award with another goat at a Texas livestock show.

Caroline Andrews, 18, another Texas native, just got out of the ring with her paint goat, Picasso. No stranger to showing livestock, her favorite memories are with her previous goat, M&M.

“He was really special to me because we bonded so well, and we worked so well as a pair. It just made it easy,” she says.

A teenager kneels on a dirt-covered arena, looking at the camera and smiling. She is holding onto a leash that is tethered to a goat in front of her.
Carlos Moreno
/
KCUR 89.3
Caroline Andrews, 18, shows off her goat named Picasso after her round of competition at the American Royal.

For some categories at livestock shows, the goal is to make sale, which means that the best livestock is sold to buyers. Andrews sold M&M at a show back in Texas.

“I always get sad. They say that you get over it after a while, but it is still upsetting,” she says, “but then you remember how hard you worked. It's a true dedication to your hard work.”

Eva Tesfaye covers agriculture, food systems and rural issues for KCUR and Harvest Public Media and is a Report For America corps member.

This story was produced in partnership with Harvest Public Media, a collaboration of public media newsrooms in the Midwest. It reports on food systems, agriculture and rural issues.

I report on agriculture, food and water issues for Harvest Public Media and the Mississippi River Basin Ag & Water Desk. I’m based at KCUR in Kansas City, Missouri. If you have story ideas, you can reach me at etesfaye@kcur.org or on Twitter @EvaRTesfaye.
KCUR prides ourselves on bringing local journalism to the public without a paywall — ever.

Our reporting will always be free for you to read. But it's not free to produce.

As a nonprofit, we rely on your donations to keep operating and trying new things. If you value our work, consider becoming a member.