Makenzy James said her senior year in Future Farmers of America has been slightly more challenging than she thought it would be.
The Godley High School student has been raising animals since third grade but said nothing could truly prepare her for losing more than half of her turkeys the first week she had them.
“I was devastated,” James said. “I bought 30 of them. The first night I lost a couple of them; that’s reasonable. The next day I came [to the ag farm] and I had 15 left.”
Opting to move her turkeys to her garage at home, James thought the birds might have a better chance out of the elements. But many of the 15 turkeys left quickly declined.
“At home it was warm; we had heat lamps,” she said. “After school there were only eight alive. I was like, ‘What am I doing?’ I really thought it was my fault.”
Ag teacher Lacey Bennett said it was more or less a lot of bad luck.
“They’re really fragile, like a day old when they get them,” he said. “[The turkeys] have to make a trip from Texas A&M to here. And they’re under a lot of stress. Makenzy was doing everything right, but she just ran into some hard luck there.”
The five remaining turkeys are doing well, Bennett said.
James, who won with a grand champion market broiler in 2009 at the Johnson County Junior Livestock Show and Youth Fair, did not show turkeys at Saturday’s Godley Chapter Show, but plans to show some at the county show on Tuesday. She said she believes the surviving turkeys have a good chance at county.
Stock show Superintendent Doug Hawkins said there are only nine turkeys entered this year.
Ag teacher Leslie Bourg said she noticed James’ confidence and that it makes a difference.
“She has not let any of these obstacles get her down and continues to work hard and stay positive,” Bourg said. “She tries to see the best in everything.”
At Saturday’s ag event, James showed two pigs and lamb.
“I really enjoy raising pigs,” James said. “They’re like people, you know? I don’t dislike my lambs but I’ve just had those days ... with goats, you have a chain on them and with lambs, you just hold on to them. I think that’s what makes them more difficult. If it goes away, it’s gone.”
James’ lamb, which won reserve champion and helped her win reserve in showmanship on Saturday, may have proved to be the simplest project, however, because even her pigs had their share of difficulty.
“My girl pig, when I first got her, was real tense,” James said. “My other pig, I had to pull him back like two months ago because he was getting too big.”
Then, about a week before the Godley show, disaster struck the male pig.
“I got him out of the pen and he was limping [in the arena] real bad,” James recalled. “Then, he really started limping. I called my mom in here and started crying, thinking he was hurt. His leg was pulled out but it wasn’t broken. In the back of his pen, he got caught between the cement and where it drops off.”
After adjusting the pen and putting the pig on a strict regimen of rest and relaxation, James said he should be good to go for the rest of the season.
As far as what to do after high school, James sees herself being a nurse.
“Ag has always been a part of my life, but I want to be a nurse,” she said. “I’m more of a people person. Helping people is more of my thing.”
James said she hopes her younger sister, an eighth-grader, follows in her footsteps. She also wants her future children to be members of FFA because she said it helps mold responsible students.
The stock show and youth fair begins Tuesday and runs through March 3. All events are at the Johnson County Sheriff’s Posse Grounds.
