By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, Raleigh, as published in the Feb. 1, 1944, issue of in the Wilmington Star
As you entered the building, you ran into a confused but orderly bustle. Boys and girls were clipping fine fat animals; there was the bawling of dissatisfied calves; pigs yelled in uncontrolled abandon at the unaccustomed surroundings and there was the unmistakable odor of cattle and hay.
Interested looking farm folk walked up and down the rows of animals and wisely made selections of the blue ribbon winners or weighed the chances of the entries made by their children. Serious-minded gentlemen with the inevitable walking canes that seemed to go with the fat stock business discussed the show in low tones and wondered audibly why some breeder was not there.
County agents studied the whole situation and almost always knew by the time the judging had started exactly how the animals would be placed.
Always present also is the versatile representative of the local chamber of commerce who is responsible for the show and is interested to see the number of visitors that have been attracted to town for the event.
This is not an event in the mid-west cattle country of the United States. It is one of the annual events staged down in North Carolina’s coastal plain—in the heart of tobaccoland, in the one-crop country of shiftless tenants, in the section of the share-cropper—where, if one believed only the small part of the propaganda about it, would never dream that such a show could be held.
Well, it can be held and has been for several years. The one at Rocky Mount is the older of three shows and is well established. The one at Lumberton is the youngest of the three and is just finding itself. The third is at Kinston and is now in its fourth year. I attended the Kinston show this year just to see if eastern North Carolina did have a livestock industry. The show was open to all counties east of a line running approximately along the main line of the Seaboard Railroad through Raleigh.
This show proved that North Carolina has some fine beef cattle herds because most of the animals exhibited were purchased form herds grown within the state. There were 73 of as fine beef steers as one would find at any small sectional show of this kind whether in Texas, Iowa, Illinois or Indiana. Some of the animals were not fed out and finished as well as usual this year because of the difficult feed situation but most of them were in tiptop shape. The judging was extremely troublesome because everyone knew those who had animals entered, and there was keen competition in all classes. Most of the 73 animals at halter were entered by 4-H Club members having baby beef projects. There was, however, a second group of animals entered in pens of three by adult farmers. In most cases, these could not compare in quality with those exhibited by the young people.
Just before the judging started, a young man in the uniform of Uncle Sam’s Navy rushed in and claimed his animal. He was 19-year-old J.C. Johnson of Naval Training Station at Sampson, N.Y. His father, Caleb Johnson of Four Oaks, Route 3, in Johnston County, and his sister, Blanche, had brought Johnny’s calf to the show, not knowing that the son would get there. John said he showed his commanding officer a picture of the blue ribbon calf that he had entered two years ago and told the officer that he had entered another and better calf this year. Then he requested permission to attend the show. Since he had finished his boot training and was to be shipped out in a few days, his request for a furlough was granted and he came to Kinston before he went home. It was a fitting reward that he won the grand champion prize and later sold his calf at the record price of 56 cents a pound. His sister, Blanche, won the reserve champion or second place, and a cousin, Ivan Lassiter, of the same Four Oaks community, won the third grand prize. The two Johnsons exhibited Herefords while the cousin showed a Shorthorn. Blanche sold her entry for 42 cents a pound.
The 73 haltered animals weighed 55,982 pounds and sold for a total of $13,285.34, or an average of $23.73 per hundredweight.
The 119 finished hogs exhibited were of the same fine quality as were the baby beeves. W.D. Cobb of Langrance, Greene County, exhibited the grand champion pen, while a 16-year-old girl, Josie Galloway of Waltonsburg, showed the champion individual. Josie is a member of the Greene County 4-H clubs.
Another important part of this show was the test of showmanship by the boys and girls who had entered animals. It was a delight to see how the young folks knew how to handle their animals in the ring. The steers were made to pass exactly right and to keep looking at the judges at all times. Sullivan Fisher of Red Oak in Nash County proved to be the best showman in the group and was given an appropriate prize consisting of halters and other livestock-handling material.
What happened in the big tobacco warehouse at Kinston also happened at Rocky Mount and at Lumberton. The fact is that North Carolina is beginning to be livestock-minded. These young farm boys and girls are coming more and more to select some phase of animal husbandry for their 4-H projects. When they finish the animals, they are as good as those grown anywhere and the roasts and steaks produced are just a tender and just as succulent and as nutritious.
This livestock is following hay crops, seeded pasture, alfalfa, lespedeza and the hundreds of other such feed crops which can be grown so successfully in the state. The man who thinks that the North Carolina farmer is continuing to sell all of his fine feedstuffs so that the Midwest farmer can use them to finish cattle and build fertility into their soils is mistaken. We have the cotton for cottonseed meal, the soybeans, the peanuts, and all the other feeds along with some foundation stock that has been bred in the purple. Why then, should we ask odds of any other farming section on earth?
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