East Texas Ag News: Aidan Ehrlich Shows Lambs for 7th Year at the County Fair

LUFKIN, Texas (KTRE) - Aidan Ehrlich is the 17-year-old son of Brad and Brenda Ehrlich of Lufkin. Aidan is a senior at Lufkin High School and has participated in the sheep show at the Angelina County Fair since his 6th grade year in the spring of 2018. This will be his 7th year. Aidan is the youngest of 3 boys- his older two brothers also showed lambs at the fair.

In addition to showing lambs, Aidan has been heavily involved in 4-H and FFA over his 4 years of high school attending state and national conventions as well as holding chapter, district and area FFA officer positions.

His mother Brenda says, “Both my husband and I were raised in agriculture and know the work ethic, character and perseverance that is developed through it. We wanted our boys to have the experience of raising an animal and using feed and exercise to develop it to its potential.” She continues, “Plus we wanted our boys to have the friendships and camaraderie that are made and grown through agricultural projects.”

“It’s the friends and hanging out that I like best.” Aidan comments. His parents say he’s also met so many great families through showing lambs. In the beginning families answered his questions and gave him suggestions as to how to improve his lambs. “Now he gets asked these same questions by others,” assured his dad, Brad, “he loves passing along what he’s learned to younger kids that have an interest to grow their skills and confidence.”

Aidan adds that in the beginning it was hard to make mistakes during the show such as placing low in a class or “having my lamb get away from him in the ring and doing so in front of my friends.” But now that he has progressed so far, his mom added, “he’d be lying if he didn’t say that he likes winning, too!” Aidan says, “Now it’s the fear of my lamb not placing as high as my goals are.”

This year’s lamb show at the Angelina County Fair will be on Thursday morning at 11 am, March 21 at the George H. Henderson Expo. The entire County Fair is from Monday, March 18 thru Saturday, March 23, concluding with the sale on Saturday starting at 4pm.

Sponsored by Kirk and Donna Mathis, the Market Lamb division in the Angelina County Fair has 25 lambs entered. With 25 entries, there will be 18 lambs making it to the auction at the conclusion of the Fair.

Judging of lambs, like the other market animals, focuses on the market readiness of the entry. The judge will place a tremendous emphasis on two main areas: muscling and condition. With sheep the exhibitors will “brace” them so that the muscles flex, showing more expression of muscle.

His mom states that she believes Aidan has learned “dedication and perseverance even in the tough days or tough overall projects.” She asserts, “When you start something, you see it through and whether it was a positive or negative experience, you learn from it. He’s become more competitive over these past few years. His sheep have become his passion and where a majority of his time and money has been spent.”

This will be Aidan’s final year at the Angelina County Fair as an exhibitor. Next year he will be attending Texas A&M to major in engineering. For more information about this year’s Angelina County Fair, go to www.angelinacountyfair.com.

Cary Sims is the County Extension Agent for agriculture and natural resources for Angelina County. His email address is cw-sims@tamu.edu.

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