I’m back again to highlight another student who has a passion outside of school! Carson Knott is a junior here at Dee-Mack High School and plays for our football, basketball, and baseball teams. Outside of school, Carson’s family has been showing goats for years and I, not having any idea what this meant, sat down with Carson to learn more about this experience.
Carson’s family started showing goats 10 years ago when his older sister joined 4H. Since showing goats is a large part of 4H, their family got the opportunity to learn a lot about the process and decided to take it on as a family. Since Carson’s father grew up on a farm, they all grew up feeling very comfortable around livestock and both 4H and FFA gave them an opportunity to really get involved in competitions.
Carson explained the process of a competition to me and here is what I’ve gathered. The basic premise of the competitions involves judges scoring animals based on the way they look, their grooming, and the way they move. Animals are judged in different classes based on their breed, ages, and genders. Competitions can be anywhere from a few hours to even a week long. Competitors are in charge of finding their own opportunities to compete, most often at events like state and county fairs. If the competition is more than one day long, there is most often one day set aside to compete, while the other days are set aside for preparations such as washing and grooming the animals. The winners of these competitions can win many different kinds of awards, from cash prizes to belt buckles. Carson’s family has won multiple national competitions over the years and have gained a great reputation for breeding and raising animals. Because of this, they have been able to turn this into a business, breeding and raising animals to sell to families and organizations all over the country.
A large part of why Carson enjoys showing goats is because he gets to spend time with his family. Even now that he’s not actively involved in competitions, he spends time helping his younger brother to prepare for his competitions. He also enjoys how much he has been able to travel because of these opportunities.
Carson’s experience is a perfect example to not put yourself in a box and allow yourself to try out all different kinds of activities. Thanks to Carson for not only sharing about his unique experience, but also for teaching us, or atleast me, something new!
