Dora student goes to FFA Royal nationals

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A Dora High School student is headed to Kansas City, Missouri, earlier this week to compete in the American Royal national competition for Future Farmers of America.

Senior Kaly Cone won grand champion with steers for the second year in a row at the Eastern New Mexico State Fair in Roswell earlier this month.

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Brenna Bates

Dora High School student Brenna Bates, far right, won grand

champion in dairy heifers at the Eastern New Mexico State Fair in Roswell earlier this month, along with fellow student Kaly Cone, who won grand

champion in steers.

“It’s even cooler to win with a home grown, because both of the steers I won with in the past two years we actually raised from calves, which is really cool,” Cone said, adding that showing animals in 4-H and FFA is a family tradition, with her father and grandparents having also shown as children.

“Me and my family have been really blessed with being successful with our showing, so we’ve won a lot of shows and have a lot of different banners, so we have a room in our house that has all our buckles and stuff,” Cone said.

But Cone was not the only Dora High student to come out on top at the ENM State Fair this year.

Sophomore Brenna Bates won grand champion in dairy heifers for the first time.

“Reserve grand was cool, but whenever I got grand, I didn’t know what to think,” she said. “Whenever he (the judge) was coming to me, my hand was shaking — It was just really cool.”

Both girls said what one wants to look for in a good quality show animal is not just muscle and body fat but a variety of things, such as how they stand, their feet and what Cone calls “structural soundness.”

“You want the muscle and the stoutness and the bone, along with a nice look and attractiveness for them,” she said. “The steer I showed with we didn’t feel had enough body when he was a baby, so we fed him beet pulp and other feed, and that really helped him.”

Cone said she owes a lot to those who have helped her along the way, especially her dad, Mike.

Bates said she has had guidance and mentoring from Vas Dairy where she gets her show cows from.

A Portales High School sophomore also came out on top at the Roswell state fair, with his dairy heifer placing first in the fifth class.

Like Cone and Bates, Vince Gardner has also been showing since he was a small child.

Gardner said he has placed first before — including at this year’s Roosevelt County Fair — but never at the Roswell fair.

“I was really excited, because that’s a really tough show to place there. Some of the best animals go to that show,” he said. “I was just happy that I did well in that show, because I usually don’t do as well in that show as I do in others.”

Portales High student Jase Wallace also placed at the fair, making sixth place in class three of dairy heifers.

Floyd High School junior Desarae Lewis received eighth place for her mutton cross.