As spring approaches, FFA events are appearing left and right, and the Canton FFA chapter is jumping on the opportunities. A few weeks ago, several students were taken to Stand and Deliver, so that they could learn to make speeches. Last week, livestock students were taken to a livestock judging competition in Enid, where they competed against multiple other schools and exhibitors to judge animals and place them in their respective order. 

On January 30th, livestock exhibitors went to the ag barn and got it ready for the upcoming local show. After the barn fire, all the hay that was under the carport was pushed into the driveway in giant piles. The hay was removed by Kopf Construction. 

The ring was cleaned, the walls in the barn were power washed, the concession stand was bleached down, and the pigs were moved into another part of the barn so that there would be room for people to walk around during the show. After all of their labors, the barn is now clean and ready to go. 

“I think we do need to clean the ag barn more often and just try to keep it clean. I also think it looks way better than it has in a long time and it honestly looks clean enough to eat off the floor, but don’t do that,” Hayden Thompson, cattle exhibitor, said. 

Unfortunately, due to the cold and miserable weather, Canton’s local livestock show was canceled and moved to February 13th on Sunday. In the meantime, the cancellation gave livestock exhibitors more time to prepare their animals for the long show season ahead of them. 

“I think that it could’ve been done that day, but it’s not a bad thing it got canceled. It did give me an extra week to prepare,” Kasidee Pope, cattle exhibitor, said. 

One week after the local show, Blaine County spring livestock show in Watonga will begin and will last for three days. Then, after Blaine County is finished, livestock exhibitors have one week to prepare for the Northwest District in Enid, and that show will last for six days. Finally, the Oklahoma Youth Expo (OYE), the largest junior livestock show in the world, will start on March 7th and end on March 13th. OYE lasts for ten days and brings Oklahoma City an average of $25 million dollars in revenue.