We just finished the Purina VIP event for 2011. What an outstanding turnout- about 200 visitors from multiple states. My compliments to the Purina staff on another outstanding program. John and Tracy did a great job as always in putting the event together. It was well organized, the food was great and the hospitality was awesome.

This was the first time that I drove to Missouri to take goats to the event. I think it really enhanced the program to have one of my young Billies to use in the demo. A great visual to emphasize selection and shearing techniques. I attached a few pictures of Mike and myself in action during one of the Goat presentations under the big tent.

For those of you that attended, a big thanks for taking the time to visit the Purina research center. For those of you that have never attended, please visit with your Purina feed dealer for details on attending the event next year in 2012.

Another great aspect of the visit was the weather. It was the first time that I have seen rain in a while. Low 60’s to upper 70’s made it very comfortable as well. Traveling home, it was 98 degrees last night at 7:00 pm just north of Austin, Tx.

Give me a call if I can help you in any way with your goat and lamb projects. You can also contact me at www.texasshowgoatconnection.com > ask the experts.

Hot and dry in South Texas. The San Antonio Water board announced yesterday that this is the first time that San Antonio has entered stage 2 water rationing in May. Mid to upper 90’s and extremely dry.

Good news- sooner or later it is going to rain. As optimist says- we are one day closer to a good rain.

We are currently making plans for the upcoming Honor Show Chow VIP event in Missouri. I am going to drive to event this year and take a few goats along so that we can enhance our goat presentations.

I am looking forward to meeting the new folks that attend and visiting with all of the fine people that work for Purina. I believe the goat presentation will exceed expectations.

I recently had the pleasure to judge a market goat show in Georgia hosted by Tracy Hood. I really enjoyed working with the exhibitors and meeting parents and breeders. A nice set of goats and a great group of exhibitors. Georgia has a great junior goat show program and I was honored to be invited to judge the show. The new goat show season is just getting started in Texas. The first show is usually held at the Belt Buckle Bonanza in Waco during the 4th of July weekend. June and July are popular months for wether goat sales with multiple sales being taking place throughout Texas.

We had two sets of goats this year. The embryo kids were born the last of March and first of April. We then held out for three weeks and the remainder of the does kidded the last of April into the middle of May. The later kids are out of our new billy that we purchased from Chubs Hutto out of Status Quo. We will market the older kids beginning the middle of June through private treaty sells. We are pleased with the quality and look forward to the future outcome in the show ring.

Enough for now. See you in Gray Summit.

Greetings to all. March is the beginning of our kidding season with the first does due on March 28. We have 20 recipient does carrying embryos from one of our donor does. The rest of the does are bred to a billy we purchased from Chubs Hutto- Hondo, Tx. that is a son of Status Quo out of a “Pair of Docs” donor doe. We are excited about the possibilities that this kidding season brings to our program.

The Texas show season is coming to an end. There is a lot of opportunity for goat exhibitors with market goat shows at Ft. Worth, San Antonio, San Angelo, Houston & Austin. All are terminal, but exhibitors can enter and exhibit and sale at each one they enter.

We are enjoying awesome spring weather in south central Texas with daily temperatures in the 80’s. In desperate need of those spring showers, but all has greened up. Enough for now, thanks for visiting the Purina Honor Show Chow Ambassador blog!

Greetings to all. It has been a while since my last post. Time just seems to fly by.

After retiring from teaching Agriculture and working the majority of the weekends attending stock shows, judging contests and leadership events, I thought things would slow down. Most of the time demands are self-inflicted. Not only am I working full time for CEV multimedia, but I have also accepted the responsibility to represent Purina and maintain small herd of boer does. Additionally, Texas State University asked me to assist their Agriculture program by teaching one section of Selection & Evaluation of livestock. Needless to say, time demands have increased.

Our family had a blessed Christmas this year as compared to last. My granddaughter Riley was born last year prior to Christmas with a birth defect that required a couple of operations. Her first 3 months were spent in NICU at Santa Rosa Hospital in San Antonio. This year we enjoyed Riley as she ran around the room continually trying to tackle the tree. Riley still has a few obstacles to overcome, but she has come a long way. She is a joy for all of us.

I enjoyed traveling to Georgia on two trips in August and September to work with the youth in evaluating market goats and lambs and judging showmanship. This was my first trip to Georgia representing Purina. It was very rewarding and I enjoyed meeting the kids and evaluating the livestock.

We recently completed our breeding season. We utilized 24 embryos from a flush of one of our top does bred to a son of Guns/Roses owned by Kevin Mock. The remainder of the does were bred natural by a billy we purchased from Chubs Hutto, Hondo, Tx. He is a Status Quo son out of a Pair of Docs donor doe.

I was impressed with his genetics as well as his physical appearance. We are excited about the possibilities of our upcoming kidding season.

I have been blessed to stay busy judging as well. January is County Show time in Texas with a large portion of the counties and cities hosting youth shows. Most of these shows allow the exhibitors to show and sell as a premium while maintaining ownership of the animal to exhibit at the Texas Major Shows. Major show season begins in January and continues until the end of March. This week I judged market lambs at the Atascosa County show, goats at the Yoakum stock show and lambs at the Travis County show. Several more to judge through the middle of March. I am looking forward to each one.

Enough for now. Good luck to all of the exhibitors.

Stock Show time in Texas. The majority of the County Shows and Chapter Shows took place in January and February. Ft. Worth, San Antonio and San Angelo Major Shows have come and gone with Houston and Austin still to go.

Several of our exhibitors have placed well at their County Shows. No reports of an overall Grand Champion, but we have had several Division Champions. Two of our top wethers were in class 9 at the San Antonio Stock Show. Both made the “cut” into the top of the class, but were not selected in the top 10 for the sale. The class consisted of 123 head total.

We kidded 14 does for late December babies producing 23 babies- 12 billy kids and 11 doe kids. The weather has been a negative factor, but all are doing well. The does are fed Noble 16 and the kids are on Honor Show Chow NTimidator plus Power Fuel. We will wean the doe kids at 75 days and the wethers at 90 days. The top end looks really good. We have an additional 25 does bred to kid in May.

I reported in Jan. that my Grand Daughter, Riley LaJean Taylor was in Santa Rosa NICU. Riley was born on Dec. 4 with a diaphragmatic hernia. She has been through two surgeries. Keli and Jeremy were finally able to bring her home on Valentines Day, but 5 days later she came down with RSV (respiratory virus) and had to go back to Santa Rosa. She is still in the NICU. Looks like the worst part is over, but still have a way to go to get her home again. We appreciate everyone’s concern and prayers.

Looking forward to the spring time and some warmer weather. God Bless to all.

Holiday Greetings to everyone.

What a year in South Central Texas. We went from the worst drought we have ever seen through August, to a very wet fall with over 20 inches of rain in September alone. No negative discussion about the rain at the Purina feed store after being without for so long.

September through December is prospect time in Central Texas. The FFA and 4H kids all have their goats on feed with Texas Validation ending in October. Exhibitors are working towards the upcoming show season with the majority of the county shows in January followed by the Major Shows in January through March.

I have several wether goats on feed with area exhibitors. Early reports indicate that several are doing really well. We are looking forward to the upcoming shows with high hopes for these exhibitors.

I had the opportunity to judge quite a few shows in November and December. The quality of the show wethers in Texas has improved dramatically over the past few years. It is always enjoyable to work with the kids in the ring while getting to handle some of the best show goats in Texas.

We just finished an embryo flush with one of your top producing does. Not sure what the record is, but she gave us 29 embryos. We only had 5 receips ready at the time, but were able to freeze the remaining embryos for future use. Currently kidding out 15 does bred for December kids. All is going well with 4 head to go. Not the best time of the year to have baby goats, even in South Texas. The rest of the herd has been bred to produce May babies.

December brought the Lord’s blessing with the birth of my first Granddaughter- Riley LaJean Taylor on Dec. 5th. Riley is my daughter’s first child. Riley was born with a birth defect- a diaphragmatic hernia. She has been in Neonatal Intensive Care at San Antonio Santa Rosa Hospital since birth. She had surgery to correct the hernia on Dec. 14. She is doing well and should be able to come home in about 3 more weeks. We appreciate the support and prayers from all of our friends.

Good luck to the Texas Exhibitors during the upcoming show season and to all exhibitors throughout.

Greetings to everyone. Want to share my family information with you. My wife Cathy and I have been married for 32 years. Cathy is the Senior Vice President at Marion State Bank. We have two children- our son Justin- 30 yrs old- took my place at Marion High School as the Agricultural Science Teacher. Our daughter Keli- 26 yrs. old- is a second grade Teacher in Schertz, Tx. We have one grandchild- Jackson – 20 months- proud parents are Justin and Andrea.

We own a small farm between Marion and New Braunfels. We started raising boer goats to produce show wethers in 2001 after Keli graduated from High School. Both of our children exhibited steers, heifers, market lambs, a few pigs and a few broilers during their 4-H and FFA careers. I exhibited steers and turkeys during my High School years.

I taught Agricultural Science at Marion High School for 29 years. During my tenure, I supervised cattle, sheep and goats. Over the years, I trained just about every type of leadership team and judging team in the FFA. Livestock Judging, Meats Evaluation and Parliamentary procedure were my favorites. I trained State winning FFA teams in Livestock judging, Parliamentary Procedure and Ag. Mechanics.

After I retired, I managed a Purina Country Store in La Vernia Texas for almost two years. During this time I met the Purina team and started putting on clinics for show goats and show lambs. After a few presentations, I was invited to participate as a Purina Ambassador for goats.

I am currently working as a Sales Consultant for CEV Multimedia selling curriculum materials to Career and Technical Teachers. Not back in education (my true passion), but back working with Ag Teachers keeps me connected.

Hot and dry in Central Texas. I recently read an article that explained that we are in the worst drought in 50 years. The majority of the livestock, especially cattle, have all been sold. We are still maintaining our small herd of 40 Boer does. There is no grazing, so we are feeding Noble 16 to the does along with protein molasses tubs and sudan hay.

The show wether prospects and doe kids are on full feed utilizing creep feeders and Honor Show Chow N-Timidator. We have sold the majority of the show wethers, just a few June kids left. I am supplementing the wethers with High Octane Power Fuel to add finish.

We produced several outstanding show wether prospects this year. In Texas, we have prospect shows all summer and fall. With our wethers being born April-June, they are not ready to show until the fall. Many of our exhibitors with be getting their goats out for the first time to see how they match up to the competition. I recommend that they try to get them out and show them at least 6 times during the fall. This gets the goats trained to travel and show and gives them an idea how to feed and fit.

Our County show in Guadalupe County is in the middle of January. Then it is one Major Stock Show after another from January to April. The Major shows are terminal for wether goats. The majority of the kids show and sell a premium at their County stock shows and then go on to one of the Major shows.

I look forward to meeting new people and visiting new places while I work with the Purina crew. Please visit my website at www.texasshowgoatconnection.com.