In a year fraught with challenge for market rabbits, quality was exceptional, and Blooming Grove senior Matt Beam of Blooming Grove FFA took his first-ever grand champion for meat pen rabbits at the Navarro County Youth Exposition. Naomi Boyer of Blooming Grove/Barry 4-H was named reserve champion.
In the first year for fryer competition, siblings Jamie and Cody Williams walked away with grand champion and reserve champion, respectively. Both are members of Rice 4-H. Though they live in Navarro County, they attend school in Ennis, where Cody is in 10th grade, and Jamie in seventh.
“We just feed them, weigh them every day, and work with them,” Cody said.
“And have fun with them,” Jamie added.
The competition in meat pen rabbits was much tougher, with 35 pens competing. The difference between fryers and meat pens is the fryers are a single rabbit, which must not weigh over five pounds, and the meat pens have three rabbits.
“What we’re looking for here is triplets,” said Rose Marie Goff, rabbit chairman. “We want three rabbits that look and feel the same, good uniformity. Each rabbit in the pen must weigh within ounces of each other.”
Goff has served as chairman of the rabbits for the last 10 years. She said that the rabbits’ toenails have to match each other, their teeth must be perfect, and the California rabbits — the ones with black ears — must have marbled toenails. And, the fur must “fly back,” meaning when you rub it backwards, it must “fly back” quickly, without any dead fur.
“There’s a lot more to it than people think,” Goff said.
“We have some fantastic quality here,” said judge Carrol Hooks of Moody. “These kids have really learned ... this job is difficult. These are probably the best quality pens I’ve seen at this show before, and I’ve been judging this for 25 or 27 years, best we can tell. Evidently, someone is doing something right.”
The Boyer family was up against a particular challenge this year, after dogs got into their rabbit pen and wiped out the hatch.
“We lost all our female rabbits in November, and had to get all new ones and breed them and get them ready for the show,” said Marilyn Boyer, Naomi and Jacob’s mom. “Jacob used one for the fryer competition and placed third, and Naomi made a pen with the other three and got reserve for her meat pen.”
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Deanna Brown may be contacted via e-mail at deanna@corsicanadailysun.com
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