American philosopher Aldo Leopold said, “There are two spiritual dangers in not owning a farm. One is the danger of supposing that breakfast comes from the grocery, and the other that heat comes from the furnace.”
With more than 80% of the U.S. population now living in urban areas, many kids grow up thinking food comes from H-E-B. Not so for about 400 Kendall County kids.
Santa comes the week before New Year’s for most kids. He also comes the week after, for those who show at the Kendall County Junior Livestock Association annual show and sale every first week in January.
Participants sign up through their school’s Future Farmers of America chapter or the Boerne 4-H Club. They then raise everything from poultry and pigs to sheep and steers. Some make woodworking projects; others weld agriculture or cooking inventions.
They exhibit their animals and projects before judges who award ribbons, belt buckles and blankets to the standouts.
Whether kids get grand champion or last place, they all get to sell their offering to a ring of generous buyers. This year, all kids went home with at least $500; some got 10 times that amount. Most received between $1,000 and $2,000.
Who makes such a unique experience possible? A mix, of course.
KCJLA’s board of directors, led by Joe Lozano, facilitates 20 different breed and project competitions. Their show runs the first week in January, but it requires year-round effort. To say theirs is a “working board” is an understatement.
“What time did you get home last night?” I asked the board member who puts together the seven-page sale list.
“2 a.m.,” he replied. “That was earlier than last year.”
KCJLA’s sale is made possible by big-hearted buyers from the Kendall County community.
Top buyers for 2024 haven’t been announced. But if history serves, many from last year’s list will appear again: R&S Excavation, Texas Specialty Veterinary Services, Venetian Custom Countertops, Dog & Pony Grill, Diamond 6S Management, Matkin Hoover Engineering, Jim Boles Custom Homes.
Money isn’t everything, and it certainly can’t buy happiness. But it can reward kids for hard work, for taking care of a domain, for shepherding a creature into a meaningful resource.
Thanks to an exemplary partnership between Boerne Independent School District and Kendall County Fair Association, not only ranch kids get to show and sell. City kids can, too.
Any neighborhood kid can raise an animal in KCFA’s livestock barn on River Road beside BISD’s Champion High School. Top-notch BISD agriculture and mechanics teachers support students through the process.
I could go on. The folks at the Wild Game Dinner and the Youth Agriculture and Equestrian Center also deserve credit for the positive state of the junior livestock scene in Kendall County.
H-E-B is fine with all this, by the way. They’re a buyer, too.
Kevin Thompson is a Boerne resident and author of The Sticky Years: Stories from the front of the van. He can be reached at [email protected].
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