Smith County Youth Expo features ag student creations

BULLARD, Texas (KLTV) - The 17th annual Smith County Youth Expo is going on this week at Bullard High School.

FFA and 4-H students from around the county gathered to showcase their livestock and mechanical builds. And it’s not just a show, it’s also a contest and sale. Judges took a close look at all the student projects looking for perfection. Some projects are living, some are not.

Winona Senior CJ Kimble and Junior Jacob Long were approached by their teacher, Ag Mech Instructor Ken Butler, with a proposal for a project, an:

“All aluminum dog trailer, and it holds up to six dogs,” Kimble said.

“What went through your head when your teacher came up and said, I want this,” I asked Long.

“I told him, I think he’s crazy. It was a lot of work. We got it done though,” Long said.

The trailer is specifically for transport of hunting dogs.

“It took about 150 hours to 180 hours. And it cost $3,900,” Kimble said.

He said the trailer it’s designed after runs about $12,000.

“Did you ever think you had this in you?” I asked Long.

“No, because we never really had a blueprint on it. We had a visual when we went to a trailer place that makes these. But overall, I didn’t know what I was building, really. I was just kind of going off what I was told,” Long said.

Bullard Senior Jacob Stripling, like many AG students, started off showing livestock, but this year he said he dropped that for his domino table.

“I always enjoy the showmanship aspect of it because anybody can get help building a project and you can sure do it yourself and be good at it. But it takes a difference to be able to show it off and to be able to really display what you’ve built,” Stripling said.

He said he also built his project with no blueprints, just pictures.

“It was kind of based off of, down in College Station, the Dixie Chicken has a domino table similar to this. So, all the Aggies will kind of pick up on that. And that’s kind of the goal here,” Stripling said.

Today’s goal is the same for all these students: win over the judges. And Kimble, Long and Stripling met their goals. The canine trailer took first place, and that domino table was apparently made by a showman, because that’s the award he took home.

Some of the student projects will be auctioned off at the Sale of Champions on Friday at Bullard High School. The sale is at 2 p.m. And although the canine trailer is not up for sale, the domino table is.

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