Youth Build Life Skills Through Livestock Showmanship

This story originally appeared in The Centre County Gazette.

By Alexandra Antoniono, Chayil Dozier, Piper Murray, and Sadie Harvey
The News Lab at Penn State

CENTRE HALL — Little brown cowboy boots clomped around in the dirt as young competitors hurried around the barn preparing for Centre County Grange Fair’s 2026 Junior Poultry Show.

Jaylene Everhart, 19, of State College, was gearing up for her final showcase after nine years of competing.

“When I first started, I got a lot of help from other 4-H and FFA members, so that’s really where my passion came from,” said Everhart. She belongs to a local Future Farmers of America chapter known as the State College Little Lions. She is also a member of the Centre County Cluckers & Quackers 4-H Club.

Everhart grew up in a family of livestock showmen, she said. Both parents and two older siblings showed lambs, beef cattle, rabbits and poultry as they grew up in the 4-H program.

Everhart said she wanted to make the program more accessible for younger 4-H members who were just getting started. Costs for livestock housing, feeding and general care can get expensive, especially for beginners.

Everhart is one of the nearly 6 million American kids who grew up through the 4-H program.

Caleb Miller, 14, of Centre Hall, is another youth contestant who has been showing poultry for three years. Miller’s family became involved in the Grange when his step-mom, Lisa Miller, lost her daughter.

The family began backyard poultry to fill the void of Lisa’s loss and to bond with Caleb. In 4-H, Caleb learned to raise and show chickens, something that Lisa and her husband Chuck are proud to see.

“Caleb is autistic, so for him, it is [about] the determination. The fact that he’s willing to expand his outreach just to grow his social circling. That’s what 4-H has allowed him to do,” Lisa Miller said. “This is preparing him for the future stages of his life. There are disappointments, and then there are times when it’s very rewarding and exciting. I think that it’s worth it all in the end.”

Todd Biddle, a licensed show judge and agricultural teacher at the Bald Eagle Area Middle School and High School, runs his school’s FFA program. Biddle teaches the animal production class, which introduces students to different aspects of agriculture including advocacy and public speaking.

“So many young people don’t get this experience until they go to college,” Biddle said.

The program Biddle runs is not the only one of its kind. Students across Centre County at State College Area, Penns Valley, and Bellefonte school districts all have access to FFA clubs as well as 4-H programs.

These programs are vital in continuing to encourage young people to pursue careers in agriculture. A Future Farmers of America survey of about 280 members found more than two-thirds of them had supervised agricultural experience. Nearly half of those members said they plan to turn those experiences into careers.

Over the next two decades, 350 million acres of farmland will change hands, according to the U.S. Senate Committee on Aging. The committee estimated that there will be 85,600 openings for farmers, ranchers, and other agricultural managers by 2031 — spaces that the next generation can hopefully fill.

Biddle owns 95 rabbits of his own and coaches students on how to take care of and show them at competitions, including at the Grange Fair.

One of Biddle’s students, Emily Steffan, 16, started showing rabbits in eighth grade and wants to become a veterinary technician. With Biddle’s help, she won last year’s veterinary science competition in Clinton, Clearfield, and Centre Counties.

“I want to give her skills that prepare her,” Biddle said. “She’s coming out of her shell because when you come here and you meet these people and you have to go through the process, it makes you more comfortable.”

Everhart is furthering her agricultural learning beyond 4-H and FFA. She will attend Penn State next year to study agriculture extension and education with the goal of becoming an agriculture education teacher in her home state of Pennsylvania.

“I love just working with students and with other families to help build their knowledge, but  also build my knowledge as well,” Everhart said.