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Young shines in swine, beef at Fulton County 4-H Fair
BY VAL TSOUTSOURIS
Sports Editor, RTC
Gavin Young won Grand Champion Heifer at the Fulton County 4-H Fair beef show Tuesday with Queen. Young, right, poses with Queen. The judge who picked Queen and Young’s older brother Zaine are in the back. Young also won four champion awards at the swine show – Grand Champion Barrow, Reserve Grand Champion Barrow, Reserve Grand Champion Gilt and Champion Landrace Gilt – on Wednesday.
Gavin Young did not have time for much sleep during the spring.
Young, who will be a senior this fall at Rochester, had schoolwork.
He also starred in baseball, where he hit .339 with five multi-hit games and 16 RBIs on the season for a Zebra team that won 20 games and the outright Three Rivers Conference title.
And then there was 4-H, where all of his work was capped at this week’s Fulton County F-H Fair at the Fairgrounds.
He won Grand Champion Heifer at the beef show on Tuesday and cleaned up at the swine show on Wednesday, winning Grand Champion Barrow, Reserve Grand Champion Barrow, Reserve Grand Champion Gilt and Champion Landrace Gilt.
“I didn’t sleep much,” Young said. “Every weekend, I’m showing pigs and then showing heifers.”
He called winning Grand Champion Heifer an “all-year project,” saying he works about three hours a day.
A class Tuesday morning before the beef show changed his outlook.
“We didn’t have much confidence coming into the week,” Young said. “Actually last week we gained some confidence.”
What makes showing cattle at the fair unique is that there is no standard way of feeding a cow. Each one is different.
“It depends on the body composition, so each calf is different,” Young said.
So how do you figure out what each cow needs?
“A lot of experience and a lot of help from people,” Young said.
What adds to the stress of fair week is that judges can be unpredictable. What impresses one judge might not impress another.
“Every judge is going to say something different,” Young said.
The judge called Queen an “oddball.”
“I knew she was kind of an oddball because she was bigger but still just as fresh,” Young said. “Clean neck. Fit.”
A cow can also be unpredictable once it gets inside the pen with a crowd of people watching.
“Some calves freak out,” Young said. “They see a lot of people, and then the white wall freaks them out too because they see their reflection. … (Queen) handled it fine. She’s not scared of noise, so she kept her focus out there.”
Young said he had to be patient with Queen because she had a “bad attitude.”
“She’ll kick you in the head if you mess with her,” Young said. “She’s not real friendly. The whole barn knows that.”
Older brother Zaine, himself a multiple-time 4-H award winner and former Rochester baseball player, helps out.
He also said methods of raising beef and swine are not alike.
“They’re not really the same,” Young said. “It’s completely the opposite.”
Young was asked to compare 4-H judges to baseball umpires.
“They determine the game,” Young said. “They can make everything happen.”
