Recently, I helped with a Master Showmanship clinic for cattle, sheep, and hogs. As I prepared for this event, I came up with 4 principles across the board to step up your game. Showmanship is more than how you brace or how you hold a halter, it’s about your ability to present an animal in the most effective way possible. These 4 principles, once mastered, will help you step up your showmanship to the next level. Intensity. This is one of the more difficult principles to master. Intensity is about being focused on the actions you’re taking and making sure there is purpose in each of them. Being in the…
Posted on August 09, 2018
Valerie LeMonte
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When I began raising market lambs, I knew absolutely nothing. I would have them for three months, sell them at our small town fair, and gawk at the sight of my paycheck by the end of my project. When I started developing a greater passion for showing livestock, I decided to take lambs to our county fair as well. I ended up winning my showmanship division and I was over the moon! I couldn’t believe that my first time ever showing alongside big time competitors, I was the one that rose to the top. Because this was my first big win, my parents pumped me up. A LOT. And so…
Posted on June 28, 2018
Valerie LeMonte
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We all do it. Every single one of us. We look for a competitive edge, a new tip or trick that will take us to the next level, a top-secret solution to improve our game and give us an edge on show day. People spend a lot of time and effort searching for secrets, thinking if they had an inside track they could level up or even upend the competition. There’s one secret in the show stock business most people aren’t prepared to handle. Are you ready? Here it comes! There are no secrets. There is only knowledge, and the funny thing about knowledge is we all start in the…
Posted on May 16, 2016
Marlene Eick
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We’ve all been there. It’s been a long day. School, then practice, then chores and now it’s late. The sun has gone down and you’ve just finished in the barn for the night. Except there’s still that one lingering task. The wheelbarrow you filled today is still sitting by the door. It needs to be emptied. You know it should be emptied, but you are tired, you tell yourself. Plus there’s homework to be done. It can surely wait until the morning. And it could. It could wait until morning. It could wait until you’ve come to the barn to start the next day’s tasks. Now that you mention it,…
Posted on April 25, 2016
Marlene Eick
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Maybe you don’t think it’s possible, but whether you realize it or not, we all have an influence on the world. Influence is your ability to affect change in the world around you and the truth is that you affect change whether or not you’re even trying. You are already exerting influence. You do make a difference. What kind of difference do you make? What kind of influence do you have? Is it positive? Or something else? Do you encourage your friends to skip practice or do you encourage them to practice harder? Do you stand idly by while someone gets teased or do you step in and say something? Do…
Posted on April 10, 2016
Marlene Eick
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It’s a beautiful Saturday afternoon. You’re at the county fair, hanging out with your friends on the show box. The sounds of the midway and the smell of deep-fried everything fill the air. There are people everywhere. A stranger walks up and begins to ask you questions about your animal. “What’s his name?” “What does he eat?” “Where do you keep him?” The strangers questions seem endless. “How could anyone go through life and know so little about animals?” You wonder. Now, imagine the moment the stranger leaves. Did you and your friends giggle about how uninformed the stranger was or did they give you props for advocating about agriculture?…
Posted on March 16, 2016
Marlene Eick
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Last month, I was LIVE on Periscope and Facebook for the first time. I don’t know that the content was all that awesome, but what is awesome is the ability to live broadcast to anyone from anywhere, all with the phone in my pocket. When I was growing up in the 80’s and 90’s, the biggest publicity I got was my name in the local newspaper for a county 4-H judging award, that week’s track meet, or maybe an FFA event. I bet I still have all those old newspaper clippings somewhere, probably in a scrapbook in the closet of my childhood bedroom. (Sorry, Mom! I promise I’ll get that…
Posted on March 07, 2016
Marlene Eick
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I showed pigs growing up. When I was in high school and thinking about college and career, I often wished I could start expanding my network. I wanted to meet people who had careers that interested me. (In high school, I wanted to be a farm broadcaster.) I wanted to talk to students a few years older than me who were at a college I wanted to learn more about. (You can major in Agricultural Communication?) Sometimes, I really wanted to talk to a professional whose work I admired. (I listened to the same voices on the radio each day and wanted to know more about their career path.) Since…
Posted on February 15, 2016
Marlene Eick
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One weekend in high school, I attended an FFA conference along with a few hundred other participants from around the state. The conference was great, the speakers were inspirational, the sessions were motivating, but what I remember enjoying the most was the people around me. They were so uplifting, so motivated, so forward-thinking. Spending time with people like that was very impactful, because I, too, felt more motivated. Jim Rohn, successful author and speaker, once said, “You are the average of the five people you spend the most time with.” Whether you’re in the high school hallway, on the basketball court or soccer field, in the studio, at your office,…
Posted on February 01, 2016
Marlene Eick
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I get it. It’s cold. If you live north of I-70, there’s a good chance there is snow and ice. Everything seems more difficult in the winter, doesn’t it? Cleaning pens suddenly requires specialized gloves that won’t cut off circulation, somehow keep your hands dry, and still won’t let you get frostbite. Hauling feed now requires skill in ice skating. My personal winter pet peeve: getting dressed to go outside takes longer than the quick barn check itself. In harsh conditions, it’s especially easy to feel like quitting. It’s just going to freeze again tomorrow, why bother breaking up that ice? Surely that one last chore can wait until the…
Posted on January 18, 2016
Marlene Eick
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At the beginning of a new year, it seems all we hear about are resolutions – goals for the new year, changes folks swear they are going to make this time around, and, of course, weight-loss missions. That first week of January, your news feed is flooded with declarations of intent. You probably also notice them at the beginning of every sports season, every school year, and every holiday. We all have goals. We all have dreams about what could be. We might even have one (or more) of those resolutions for the new year. The reason we ALL have goals and dreams is because that’s the easy part.…
Posted on January 11, 2016
Marlene Eick
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I graduated from a small, rural high school. Among the many perks of a small school is often having the same teacher for multiple courses. I had the privilege of learning from Mr. Leuthold for two years of algebra, one year of geometry, and one year of pre-calculus, and even though the content changed from year to year, his approach to class was the always the same. Each day we would spend a significant amount of time reviewing the homework problems assigned the previous day, going over the steps we used to arrive at an answer. He wasn’t interested in just the answer that was at the end of the…
Posted on December 08, 2015
Deb Gress
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