Banner Chasing …..

Spring is in the air.  Snowstorms have ceased and have been replaced by thunderstorms and showers and warmer temps  For people in the livestock world, it is prime time for buying and selling lambs, pigs, goats, and cattle. It's the time of the year when every weekend you are either going to sales or going to different farms to look at animals for show seasons. For me, this is the busiest time of the year and I know that I’m not the only one. Everyone is trying to find the “best” lamb or pig to be his or her Grand Champion. We are all “banner chasing” with the goal of being on top when it’s all said and done.

Growing up showing livestock made this an every year activity that we would partake in when March rolled around. We would start looking at sales online, calling different breeders to see if we could come to their farm, and searching for different sales that we could go to over the weekends. This is my favorite part of the year because everyone is traveling all over the place on the weekends and analyzing so many different animals. You also get to see your friends while you are at the different sales and make connections with breeders while at their farms. You spend so much time with most of the people you see at sales over the summer and into the fall that they become your second family or as we like to call it our “show family”.

Showing is a big part of my life and it is something that I love to do and look forward to every summer. My parents have instilled a passion for showing in me that has made me the person that I am today. I started when I was 7 years old and wouldn’t change it for anything. I had two market hogs and I was super excited to show them. That year we only went to three different shows and they were all in Delaware. As I started to get older I yearned to go to more sales and places to look at different animals and my parents agreed to take me. I am now about to start the last year of my junior show career. It is the beginning of the end for me. This year I wish to go out with a bang and try to get some good animals. I have picked out my lambs and pigs and now the only thing left to do is work with them and make sure that they are in a good environment and have a good feeding program. It calls for a lot of work but this is what I am passionate about and what I want to excel in.

The years and time that I have put into this I wouldn’t change a thing. I have made so many friends and have had so many different opportunities in showing livestock. I now consider these people as my family more then just friends because they are who I have grown up with and have had so many times. The years of traveling and making new friends have been some of the best memories I could ask for and will last a lifetime!  So, as the rest of the Big Blue Nation chases banner #9 for our basketball team, I plan to spend my summer chasing my own banner.....

Kaitlin is a sophomore from Wilmington, Delaware.