Livestock shows may break record

January 14, 2013, 9:00 pm by James Walker

Hannah Dockery of Marble Falls shows off her Grand Champion Market Lamb Saturday at the Burnet County Junior Livestock Show premium auction. Staff Photo by James Walker

The 2013 Burnet County Junior Livestock Show last weekend turned into the Alyssa Moss Show.

Moss, an 18-year-old Burnet High School senior who has been competing in the stock show for 10 years, put a star-studded cap on her career Friday when her hulking bald-face black crossbreed steer was judged to be the Grand Champion and an hour later her Shorthorn heifer was named Grand Champion Heifer.

"It’s just an awesome experience,” said Moss before taking her two champions into the show ring for the premium auction Saturday that concluded the livestock show.

Livestock show officials Monday were still awaiting the final numbers on the amount of money Burnet County and Highland Lakes area business officials and supporters paid the more than 240 exhibitors who showed their cattle, hogs, sheep, goats, turkeys, chickens and rabbits at the event.

Livestock show coordinator Janet Bohannon of the Burnet County AgriLife Extension Office was confident the amount would top last year’s record $295,000.

"We’ll see what the final numbers are, but I feel confident we’ll be over $300,000.” Bohannon said.

Joe Vann, Burnet High School’s ever-upbeat agriculture teacher who along with colleague Brandon Evans worked with many of the young student exhibitors in selecting and preparing their animals for the competition, was singing the praises of the local citizens and their support.

For more of this story, see Tuesday's Highlander.