THOUSANDS OF HOURS OF HARD WORK PAY OFF AT THE HOUSTON LIVESTOCK SHOW AND RODEO™ 4-H/FFA AGRICULTURAL MECHANICS PROJECT SHOW AWARDS
Texas 4-H and FFA members received awards on Sunday, March 17, at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Agricultural Mechanics Project Show in the NRG Center East Arena.
Students brought projects from around Texas to compete in the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Agricultural Mechanics Show. The show consisted of two contests: The Agricultural Mechanics Projects, which showcase completely made-from-scratch projects, and the Tractor Restoration Projects.
The Agricultural Mechanics Show consists of four divisions: Agricultural Equipment, Livestock Equipment, Bumper-pull Trailers and Gooseneck Trailers. Each of the four divisions have Grand and Reserve Champion winners; from those winners an overall Grand and Reserve Champion is chosen.
The 2019 Grand Champion went to Vega FFA’s Zachary, 17, and Nikolas, 14, Paetzold and their 40’ live-bottom trailer. The Paetzolds said they spent 542 hours building the project, and the only help they received was from their dad, Jeremy Paetzold, who sponsored the project.
“Our dad has a custom harvesting business, so we built him another silos trailer,” Nikolas said. “It can hold 20 tons and has a tarp for transporting.”
Reserve Grand Champion was Nocona FFA’s tandem-axle irrigation pump trailer.
Grand Champion of the Tractor Restoration Competition was Ryder Merta, 18, from El Campo FFA with his 1949 John Deere Model B tractor. Ryder said the restoration took him 6 months, and just over 400 hours to complete.
“I haven’t had that much luck with my previous projects, so to come here and win my class and divisions means a lot,” Ryder said. “I was really blown away.”