Polk County News - Breakout

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By Emily Banks Wooten
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The annual report from the Polk County AgriLife Extension Office was presented to the Polk County Commissioners Court Feb. 28 with numerous people reporting on the department’s various activities.

Alissa Kimbro, who is in her 13th year with the county, her 15th year with extension and her 20th year in education, told about the 4-H day camp and the summer camps that were held.

“We’re teaching kids how to start fires and put them out. We used ribeyes this year. The kids really enjoyed it. Then we took it back in time and taught the kids how to make jelly, so they are learning the canning process,” Kimbro said, adding that they also worked on some leadership activities.

She introduced Eddie Turk, one of the local 4-H students.

“I’ve been active in 4-H shooting sports for about five years. This is my second time as the Livingston 4-H president,” Turk said.

“My favorite thing about shooting sports is it teaches you how to handle and use a firearm properly which everybody needs to know. And my favorite thing about 4-H, as a whole, is it has provided me opportunities to improve my leadership and my communication skills. I’ve had several opportunities to go to the 4-H junior leadership labs and that helped me with learning how to work with people and being a leader and I would recommend 4-H activities to anybody,” Turk said.

Transitioning from 4-H to ag, Polk County AgriLife Extension Agent Matthew March reported on some of the ag and natural resource education that was conducted.

“I invited John and Tina Crichfield, two producers I work with here in the county. They have a cattle operation/recreational property out on East Clamon Road. Tina also works with me a lot with Master Naturalists,” March said.

“Texas Master Naturalists, we couldn’t have the program without the ag extension office and without Matt. We are especially grateful for the education and workshops and seminars that he provides both to us as Texas Master Naturalists and the opportunities he provides us to work with the community in helping to educate them and be better stewards of our environment here locally. I’m this year’s training director and we have the largest training class we’ve ever had,” Tina said.

“We are very grateful that we have an extension agent that likes to come out and take a look at our land,” John said. “We’ve had problems with our pastures and he has given us a plan to get that under control. We’ve had pond issues and the pond seminar that he did for the continuing ed out at our place gave us a whole lot of new insight as to how to get our algae fish-killing pond under control. Him bringing out wildlife biologists, hydrologists and trappers gave us a much better idea of how to bring some of our property problems under control.”

Gary Ashmore, general manager of the Lower Trinity Groundwater Conservation District spoke next.

“I serve on the Farm Bureau as a volunteer and on the board. Matt came to us with the idea of having an informal, educational growers breakfast. It’s called the Polk County Growers Breakfast. It’s bi-monthly, the last Friday of the month. We invite people who actually make a living in the county growing things and selling things, as well as amateurs such as myself that want to pretend to be farmers. It’s a great breakfast that’s been growing over two years. It was recognized by the State Farm Bureau. Of the entire state, it was chosen as the most innovative and educational new program that had been started in the state. Matt was called down to Corpus Christi and given an award at the state annual membership and we were very proud of that,” Ashmore said.

“The growers breakfast is a fantastic thing. It’s word of mouth. We have over 50 people. Our last meeting two weeks ago was 40 people. Every other month Matt brings in an expert from A&M, tells us how to grow things organically, which fruit trees to grow, how to grow bees. Matt does a fantastic job. I think he’s undervalued. He does good for us. He’s a valuable asset,” Ashmore said.

“Gary underestimates himself too. I wouldn’t be able to do the growers breakfast without him. He gets all the IT together and sends out the emails and everything,” March said. “I just want to hit the highlights. I have three main programs that I do – beef and forage education, produce education and wildlife and habitat improvement education.

“We all know cattle’s a big deal, the number one livestock inventory in the county. This year with the drought and rising input costs and fertilizer costing $1,000 a ton we had to look real hard on trying to get education to improve efficiency of operations. We did a beef and forage workshop in the county where we went out to W.R. Baker’s ranch and worked on fertilizer and weed ID out there. We did our annual pesticide certification and we did our Cow County Congress in Madisonville,” March said.

“As for produce education, there are two main things. One is the bi-monthly produce growers breakfast meeting over at the Farm Bureau. The highlight of that this last year is we did a county farm tour. We went out to Sweet Wings Farms, Mr. Snook’s farm and C&M Blueberries and we had about 20 people or so that got to go tour around the county. They got to see techniques that they could take into their operations,” March said.

“The other thing that Deborah’s going to talk about more is we have a senior citizen community garden at the extension office where we have volunteers manage it  and we take produce over to the senior center and we do a monthly lunch and learn with them and teach them how to incorporate healthy vegetables into their diet. It’s pretty neat. Fourteen of the seniors that we surveyed said they added at least one new fruit, vegetable or seed to their diet. That’s pretty neat because a lot of them have limited funds and don’t have access to good vegetables. Last year we raised 676 pounds of produce from the garden and that equated to around 1,800 individual pieces of vegetables,” March said.

“As for wildlife and habitat improvement education, we know that timber’s a big deal here in the county. We do field tours which Tina and John mentioned, where we did the pond management out at their property. We took landowners out there to look at the ponds in person. I’m also part of the forest pest seminar up in Lufkin which caters to commercial loggers and foresters and we have quite a few from here in Polk County that go to that. Last year the economic impact for that was estimated at around $274,000 to our local loggers,” March said.

“We have gotten a lot of positive feedback on the community garden, especially from the senior citizens that have been getting vegetables to take home and also receiving education, so that has been nice,” County Judge Sydney Murphy said.

The next to speak was Deborah Alvarado, the health agent for Polk County and Trinity County.

“Matt and I have been doing lunch and learns with the senior citizens. We have been presenting them with recipes. We use the vegetables from the garden and then I do a cooking demonstration with them and show them how to use the vegetables that they can grow and also talk to them about the health and nutrition benefits of each of the vegetables. I always try to bring things in. There are certain vegetables that people just don’t like and are not going to try. Last week we did turnips and the month before that we featured kohlrabi. These are things that a lot of people are just not going to try so I’m always trying to come up with new recipes and ways to make them taste better and more appealing. The seniors really seem to like it. When we did our evaluation with them last year everything was 100% – they were learning, they were enjoying eating more vegetables and that they were even cooking more vegetables” Alvarado said.

“I’ve started working with Goodrich ISD on a program called Learn Grow Eat Go. It’s for third, fourth and fifth-graders and there are about 54 students. I’m teaching them how to garden, nutrition, healthy eating, physical activity. The intent is to start them young to get them into healthy habits and to teach them about gardening so that it will be more of a lifelong activity for them,” Alvarado said.

“I’m also doing a program called Walk Across Texas. It’s a program that encourages physical activity. The whole idea is that over an eight-week period, they form teams and walk 832 miles or more. That is the distance from Orange to El Paso so they are, figuratively, walking across Texas. There are about 305 people participating and that includes students, teachers, staff and parents. The goal is to teach them to be more conscious about physical activity and moving more. I hope this is just the beginning and that we’ll be able to expand to other schools in Polk County,” Alvarado said.

Kimbro wrapped things up, thanking the commissioners court for its support and commenting that the extension programs could not do what they do without the court.

“We did not mention that Matt did win a superior service award through Texas A&M AgriLife Extension. It’s one of the highest awards in the A&M system. He won for the efforts that he put forth with the Onalaska tornado, getting the team out here and doing all of that. We are very, very lucky to have him,” she said.

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Halle Hawkins, who won three awards at the Texas State Fair for her animals 18 months ago, has won Overall Grand Champion at the San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo. COURTESY PHOTOBy Brian Besch

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About 18 months ago, the Enterprise featured Livingston High School’s Halle Hawkins after she won awards with three different animals at the Texas State Fair in Dallas. She captured two reserve championships and a supreme champion at the show, winning over more than 1,000 competitors.

She has done it again, this time winning an even bigger show. She can now add San Antonio Stock Show & Rodeo Market Barrow Show Grand Champion to her impressive list of awards.

Halle’s father, Livingston Superintendent Dr. Brent Hawkins, said Fort Worth is like the Indianapolis 500 and Super Bowl of stock shows for steers. He said the same goes for San Antonio when showing pigs.

“It is the hardest Barrow show in the world and a whole lot of that has to do with Texas money,” he said. “They refer to it as the Super Bowl of pig shows. It is the Mount Everest and every kid that dreams of the stock show and pig show business, dreams of winning San Antonio. Everything else is just a smaller mountain.”

Dr. Hawkins said a breeder once termed winning the Barrow show at San Antonio like buying one ticket at the convenience store and winning the lottery, then being struck by lightning on the way back home.

“What makes ours more difficult is she doesn’t have some of the things that the other kids have,” Dr. Hawkins said. “Her daddy doesn’t own a boar stud. There was a kid in the grand drive that she beat that had 60 pigs on feed. To feed pigs is about $1,500 apiece. You can see how much money they have invested. I saw a fifth in class pig that I know I was at the sale for, and that daddy gave $80,000 for the pig. She beat a $40,000 pig in one of the drives. We can’t afford those pigs. There are a lot of kids in the state of Texas that have million-dollar barns. The barns don’t have anything to do with it; it is the animals inside. There are kids in the state of Texas that insure their pigs for over a million dollars. We don’t have the ability to do that, so we have to work harder and work smarter in order for our little amount of money to go up against the giants.”

Dr. Hawkins said $2,000 was paid for Wehmer, the latest overall champion shown by Halle. There are multiple millions of dollars that do not even make it into the grand drive, the final contest that decides a grand champion.

“I just work hard,” Halle said of her secret to success.

Halle is out at the barn more often than anyone else and has a wide knowledge that gives her an edge.

“Every day after school and on the weekends I am out there walking them, washing them, and just giving all of my time to them,” she said.

Some of the more affluent pig owners hire people to walk, wash, and train the animals. Some of Halle’s success is that she does all of that work herself. From August to February, she spends three to four hours after school every day and eight to 10 hours on the weekends. She was kept away from the animals for about an hour to be interviewed.

“We normally start it by feeding them and then we will give them time to eat,” she said. “Then, we will start exercising them, sunning them so that they can get darker, and washing them.”

The pigs are oiled up for the sun to become the right color, then they are washed with soap to get the oil off the skin. They are conditioned and dried, then a different oil goes on to prevent the hair from drying out. It is a skin care routine that would make movie stars jealous.

Feeding doesn’t just involve going to buy a sack. There are eight different barrels of feed that goes into a pig meal. Grains, pellets, oats and about 10 different supplements that are good for anything from more body to joints all combine for a winning mixture. Each supplement has a different amount of protein, lysine, and fat content. Dr. Hawkins said 40% of success is being able to feed the pig.

“It is the way that you build them out of that feed,” he said. “It is adjusted every week and you weigh every Sunday. You have a target show date on that pig, so you are looking at the average rate of daily gain and trying to figure out what weight you want this pig to show at. You’re monitoring the average and increasing or decreasing the volume of your base feed. If they are too lean, you start adding some fat supplements in there in order to put more conditioning on that pig.”

Halle’s father and uncle have a talent for finding the diamond in the rough. They do not spend the type of money that others can, but have a good idea what to look for in potential prospects.

“The pigs are more unpredictable than a steer,” Dr. Hawkins said. “When you look at a steer, you imagine it bigger and that’s what that steer is going to look like. When you look at a pig, it is hard to predict what he is going to look like.”

There’s also a certain way to show the animal, where the sides, back and front are profiled for the judges. That is also an everyday practice. With all the work Halle puts in with her pig, they become one with her whenever it’s time to show.

“Every day after school, we train them and exercise them. They have to have the lungs to walk around the ring the whole time they are in there.” Halle said. “They have to be able to hold their head up.”

There is footwork, where their heels must be conditioned to make sure the animals do not bust a pad. Pens are cleaned every Saturday, lasting about two to three hours. The animals have to walk a certain way, as their head must remain up. They must be able to strut for 45 minutes, meaning they must be trained to do so. In order to condition the pigs, Halle walks with them for hours at a time. If the animal is not in condition and breaks down, that contestant will not win.

Halle did collect $75,000 for sale of the animal, but says she would give it all back if she could have kept Wehmer. All who participate in the grand drive win a $10,000 scholarship, which she has tentatively planned to put toward nursing school at Stephen F. Austin University.

While the $75,000 is a lot of money, it may not have covered the expenses of travel, pigs, feed and supplements. Supplements are a big expense, including one that is now $462 per 20-pound bucket. Dr. Hawkins said the price has grown exponentially, since it is made from 1,000 eggs. A few years ago, the bucket was $75, but grew to as much as $650.

Participants usually are not into showing animals for money, it is a love for the animals and participating in the events.

“It is the thrill that she got, and to see your kid,” Dr. Hawkins said. “I’ve got pictures of her back when she was at the Pineywoods fair in Nacogdoches doing Pee Wee shows. She was four years old. There is no telling how many miles we have traveled. We have flown and caught a plane in Houston and flew to the Midwest to rent a car to look at pigs. Father and daughter have traveled a lot of miles together. When you see your kid walk into the greatest show in the world and see her win, and you see the emotion that went into that win – to me, I walked away from that show knowing I have a young lady now. She has been raised in that showroom and that is what we do this for. We are raising kids.”

Halle has a few contests in Houston and will try to extend her incredible success at the world’s largest livestock show.

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The Go-Getters have just finished another undefeated basketball season, as they toppled the Polunsky Point Guards, their final opponent of the season.  They now head to the Polk County Special Olympics tournament on March 11 at Livingston Junior High, matching up with an opposition of similar special talents.  The season began with an impressive victory against The Bull Shack, and they then went on to defeat team Pedigo. Next, the Go-getters dominated the LISD Buddies, then won over the Livingston VFD. They then beat H-E-B, the Chick-Fil-A Cows, the Sweat Shop, Texans EMS, and WalMart. March 11 will be the final time before next season to see the Go-Getters in action, and they encourage all to come out and show their support COURTESY PHOTO

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The Old Andress Inn, built around 1846 or 1847, was owned and operated by Mr. and Mrs. James Andress. Later, their daughter, Harriet Caroline Keys, owned and ran it. The hotel was said to be the social and business center of the community for many years. The Polk County Historical Commission is hosting a ceremony at 2 p.m. March 11 in which a replacement Texas Historical Marker will be dedicated.

From Enterprise Staff

Old Andress Inn, Livingston’s first hotel, was owned by James Andress, a contemporary and colleague of Moses L. Choate, the founder of Livingston. Located just south of the Polk County Courthouse, the Inn was a combination restaurant, saloon, grocery store, livery stable, bank, post office and stage station. It has been noted that General Sam Houston attended dances there. The passing of Andress and his wife left the Inn to their daughter and only heir, Mrs. Harriet Caroline Keys and it was renamed the Keys Hotel. The hotel was demolished in 1907.

A Texas Historical Marker was installed and dedicated in 1968. It was located in the 100 block of West Mill Street in front of the old Pedigo furniture store. When these buildings were demolished for the construction of the Polk County Judicial Center, the original marker was lost.

A new replacement marker will be dedicated in a ceremony hosted by the Polk County Historical Commission at 2 p.m. March 11 in front of the Polk County Judicial Center and the public is invited to attend.  Following the dedication, light refreshments will be served at Miss Effie’s Cottage at 201 W. Mill St.

Choate, a native of Livingston, Tenn., has started a settlement called Springfield on his land grant in 1835 and wanted the seat of government located there when Polk County was organized out of Liberty County in 1846. He offered to give the new county 100 acres of land if Springfield was selected as county seat and the name of the town be changed to Livingston, for his former home in Tennessee. The legislature required that an election be held to determine the location of the county seat for the newly organized Polk County. By election in June 1846, Springfield was decided upon and the name was changed to Livingston.

Many new families were migrating into Texas during this period and James Andress and his family was one of these families. James and Jerusha Andress moved to Monroe County, Alabama, settling near Fort Claiborne, Alabama sometime before 1827. He was constable for Monroe County in 1827 and justice of the peace in 1835, 1843 and 1844. The last land sold by Andress in Alabama was in April 1845. He had moved to Livingston by 1846 and was very active in helping form the new Polk County and town of Livingston.