Kerr County Stock Show at 93 years: teaching kids about the values of agriculture

Trey Dittmar was a shy kid. He used to hide behind his father and stick his hand in his dad’s coat pocket when people approached. Today he runs a business and speaks publicly without a second thought.

He credits the Kerr County Stock Show.

“The most important lesson is how to be a loser,” Dittmar said Friday on Lead Live’s Nonprofit Week. “Because there is a lot of losing. There’s a lot of losing in life — learning how to be happy for those that are successful and manage your lack of success… and move on and do it again.”

Dittmar, who graduated from the Stock Show in 2001 and succeeded his father as association president, appeared alongside Association Secretary Sarah Bainbridge and Executive Board Director and Fundraiser Chair Lindsey Gulledge.

The Kerr County Stock Show traces its roots to 1933, when it launched as the “Fat Lamb Show” with 19 exhibitors. Over the decades, it grew into a 31-county district competition and became the fifth-largest junior livestock show in Texas. In 2020, COVID restrictions forced a pivot to a county-only format — one the community received so well that the association made it permanent.

“The animals are just kind of the tool,” Dittmar said. “It’s all the lessons the kids learn.”

Those lessons include load management, personal responsibility, and the kind of early-morning discipline that comes from having an animal at home that depends on you regardless of what else is on your schedule. Exhibitors must also maintain a minimum GPA to receive scholarship funds — the association has distributed nearly $3 million in scholarships over its history.

The association has also restructured its auction to allow students to retain their animals for further competition. Rather than selling the animals, the community buys the student’s success. Bids pool in $500 increments, and add-on options are available in $25 increments — making it possible for grandparents and neighbors to back a student without bidding on a full animal.

New this year: an Ag Mechanics Exhibition on Tuesday of show week, giving students who design and build agricultural equipment a public platform before they take their projects to larger shows.

The annual fundraiser — a casino night and game night in its 46th or 47th year — is Sept. 26 at the Hill Country Youth Event Center Expo Hall, with music by Buffalo and the Herd. This event “solely funds the scholarships, the operations of the show, and the sale money that our organization puts towards those kiddos,” Gulledge said.

Show week in January 2027 opens with the Annual Cowboy Breakfast at 6 a.m. on Monday, Jan. 4, sponsored by Texas Living Homes.

For information: kerrcountystockshow.org.