Fallbrook youth fair give students experience

By: ALLIE AKMAL - For the North County Times | Saturday, May 19, 2007 11:32 PM PDT ∞

FALLBROOK -- The crowd sitting on hay bales watched intently as four diminutive teenage girls each led a 1,000-pound calf around a grassy paddock Saturday in the 51st annual Optimist Youth Fair at Fallbrook High School.
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Aside from the occasional halfhearted protest moo, the scene was one of orderly and well-practiced routine. The girls, in identical white jeans and blue-corduroy jackets, seemed calm and composed. If the San Diego County Fair were tomorrow, they might do just fine.

Designed expressly to prepare Fallbrook students to compete in the county fair, the Optimist Youth Fair is a collaboration between Fallbrook High School, the Fallbrook Ag Boosters Club, and the Optimist Club.

Kim Miller, an agriculture instructor at Mission Viejo High School, explained that it is critical for students to hear opinions from judges who aren't their teachers.

"The agriculture teachers are probably giving the same opinions, but it helps to hear it from someone on the outside," she said.

Her husband, Steve Miller, who works for the Dairy Council of America, was judging the cattle and giving feedback to each student about what needed to happen to make their animal county fairñready.

Sophomore Tara Glidden, whose steer, Trigger, got second place in showmanship, said she is in the high school's FFA program because she wants to be a cattle rancher.

She also admitted that the program keeps her busy and out of trouble.

Though Glidden has been raising Trigger since November, she said, she had no illusions about him.

"He'll go to the slaughterhouse, where I hope he'll be good meat," she said with a grin.

Students pay up front for the livestock and plants they raise through FFA. Then they keep the profits from any sales.

At the other end of the school's ag complex, junior Sheena Moore was doing a brisk business with the 500 plants she grew herself. Though planning to become a veterinarian, Moore got involved with FFA because "it sounded interesting, and you can make a big profit."

"She knew about every single plant!" exclaimed satisfied customer Jackie Cumming, waving the sheet of paper on which Moore had helpfully penned advice about the varieties Cumming had bought.

"I was here last year and bought things, and they survived," said Cumming. "I know a lot of people come here every year for their plants."

Fallbrook High School horticulture instructor George Kreutzer had nothing but praise for Moore's performance. "She's taken the (horticulture) team to a whole new level."

He hopes that industrious students like Moore will be ambassadors for FFA.

"People think we're just cows and plows," said Kreutzer. "That's not the case; there's an incredible amount of business involved in agriculture.

"San Diego County is the horticulture capital of the United States," he added. "That industry makes millions of dollars."

His point, of course, is that what FFA students learn through agriculture courses and practical experience affects not only their own careers, but also the national economy.

But this weekend, the goals were more immediate: find out how to get the pygmy goats, dairy goats, sheep, pigs, and chickens looking their best, because the county fair is just around the corner.

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