Hanleigh Young
Age: 13
Grade: Freshman
Family: Parents, Matt and Winter Young; sister Madison; two brothers, Landon and Holden
Hometown: Lebanon, Mo.
School: Lebanon High School
What has been in agriculture?: “I raised a crossbred steer for the (2015) Laclede County Fair but in the end, I didn’t get to show him. It was really disappointing I couldn’t show him. I only got to do showmanship, which is where I am judged, not the steer, and I had to borrow a friend’s steer, from Kaylee Bowman, to do that.”
So what did you think of raising your own steer for the first time?: “It was a lot of fun. I trained him to lead, to be halter broke. He was cream-colored, a 700-pound calf when I got him and seven to eight months later, he weighed 1,080 pounds. I fed him corn, cottonseed to make him more marbled, and soybean meal.
“The best part was actually getting him ready for the fair, the washing, shearing, blow-drying and fluffing him to make him look real pretty. The worst part, was after raising him from a baby, having to sell him to a butcher house. I always knew that was the way it would be, but it was still hard. I had to be up at 6:30 every morning to work him, once in the morning before school and then again, later, so twice a day.
“He was kinda crazy and wanted to kick too much so I had to use a bull ring in his nose.”
What are your future plans?: “Next year, I plan to raise another steer that I will definitely show at the county fair.
“After high school, I hope to go my first two years at College of the Ozarks, because you can work for your tuition there and then after that, I’ll probably go on to Mizzou. I’d like to be a pediatric intensive care doctor, so that’s another 14 years of school after high school.”
