Congrats to the young lady! Good for her! We didn't own a farm, having lived in the sandy, central WI pine barrens, only farming that is viable there is red pine, unless you are going to suck the water table dry with central pivot irrigation structures. Although, I did work on many farms as a youth, both for my friends' families and for farmers that my uncles worked for. Very similar to j-bird, I did belong to FFA, strictly for the soils, forestry, and wildlife management aspect of it and the fact that the FFA Coordinator(Ag teacher) at our high school wanted me on the Ag Mechanics Team because I could rebuild small engines, wire up electric motors, and weld(better than he did and he was the welding instructor at our high school). I had tons of friends that were in both FFA and 4H. Most of those kids grew up to be hard working, contributing members of their community. There are life lessons to be learned and both FFA and 4H are great places to get that knowledge. I didn't show cattle, but I did a little cattle judging back in those days, albeit mostly on dairy cows, and that is a great looking steer. I also agree with phil, the kids not sleeping in the barns...ridiculous! I can just about guarantee that the kids at our county fair will just sneak into the barns anyway after the fair closes for the evening.