

By David Taylor / Managing Editor
He never has a day off. While Kodey Davis’s friends from school were at home cozying up next to the warm fireplace, he was trudging through the snow to get to the barn to take care of his animals. That’s commitment and it’s the sort of character that his teacher Stephanie Jones says will jumpstart a successful career for her students.
The junior, who has only been a member of the Future Farmers of America (FFA) for two years, scored the Grand Champion Steer at the recent Sheldon ISD FFA Livestock Show.
“When I won, I was like, aww man,” the junior said. “I learned from the best,” he smiled.
He’s the first to acknowledge that he received a lot of help from his mom, dad, and many others.
“They helped me a lot with my project,” he said about Brandy, his heifer.
That kind of success doesn’t come easy.
“I wake up in the morning and get ready to go to school. My breeder feeds for me in the morning,” he said.
“I go to school, take care of my classes, go to athletics, get a little workout in, then I head to the barn,” he said.
The athlete takes Brandy out of the barn to work with her.
“I tie her head up briefly to help her get used to holding it up in the ring,” he said about competition prep.
“If the stall is really bad, I clean it out, put in new sand and bathe her,” he described the grooming.
“I’ll blow dry her out and then work showmanship for about 15-20 minutes,” he said.
She’s a little free spirited and he recently found out that she’s also very pregnant.
“I walk her about every other day. I don’t want to put a lot of stress on her and move her around too much,” he said. “When I can, I let her go out into the field to play.”
Davis is rapidly developing into a skilled professional in the field of animal husbandry. He left for Forth Worth on Friday and competed on Saturday at the livestock show where he placed third in his category. He is already a multiple grand champion winner with his animals.
“I could have got second if her belly just looks like she ate a little bit more, but that first place entry was really good,” he acknowledged.
It costs a considerable amount to feed a heifer, but his parents help on the bill.
“They haven’t made me go out and get a job yet, so they’ve been paying for it, and I truly appreciated it,” he said.
His teacher, Jones, was in Fort Worth with him and his parents coaching and working with students from Sheldon.
“All of the students that I have with me today are all scramble kids,” she said. “They scrambled at Fort Worth, or Houston, or Austin or somewhere, and won a scramble certificate and they purchased these cattle for it. Now they’re getting to show the heifers,” she said.
Large projects like heifers students began raising back last May or June while smaller ones get started in September or October, Jones said.
Then the projects go to auction.
“Our show is terminal, which means they (the projects) can’t be returned to the student. They’re going to go into the food chain, one way, shape or form. Whoever purchases them, you know, takes them. And then we also have heifers. So heifers are one of those types of animals where you there’s no ending. The end is in having a calf and you selling the cow and the calf, or selling the calf off and raising that, the calf to pay tuition, or whatever. That’s kind of how that works,” she explained.
Some students do more than one animal, even multiples of the same breed.
“Obviously, I’m biased about our kids being special. Whether it’s Saturday, Sunday, Christmas Day, New Year’s Eve, freeze or not, they’re up there twice a day at the barn feeding, watering, caring for those animals,” she said. “They just have a different type of work ethic than most kiddos, in my opinion.”
A lot of the students are there at the barn every morning around 5:15 AM and have to be in class by 7 AM.
The kids aren’t the only ones who have to be committed.
“Sometimes they have parents that go and help them before school which is great!”
The teachers aren’t far away working with the students as groups and individuals depending on the breed and student.
“Say a student needs a little extra help on showmanship or needs a little extra help on grooming. Then we schedule different appointments with those students to make sure they all kind of catch up and get on the same page with everyone else,” she explained.
The program has five teachers and 474 students this year.
With that many students, they still share them with other programs such as band, athletics, cheerleading, drill team, and more.
“We want them to do as much as they can to be successful,” she said.
The steer Kodey raised and won grand champion with was donated to the chapter. Through an interview process, Kodey was selected to raise the calf free of charge. He only paid for the feed.
“He chose Kodey to represent him and raise the calf and that student is an alumni of our chapter. That’s so cool to me.”
Jones said it was the kind of legacy they’re trying to leave with students.
In the meantime, Kodey wants to use his money for college.
“I don’t know exactly what I want to do, but I know I want to stay on the agriculture side, or maybe I could possibly get a D1 offer,” he hoped.
Awesome, Kodey Davis. I am so proud of you. Keep up the great work!