Two local teens have winning lambs at the state farm show
Alexa Miles is shown with her aunts, Shannon Miles and Abby Miles, and her lamb, Harry.
Hayden Demniak shows his grand champion lamb at the Pennsylvania Farm Show Sunday.
Sixteen-year-old Hayden Demniak of Carmichaels has made quite a name for himself showing market lambs at the Pennsylvania State Farm Show.
Sunday, Demniak’s 156-pound Hampshire lamb, Loaki, was chosen to be the grand champion of the show’s junior market lamb competition.
It wasn’t a first for Demniak, the son of David and Cindy Demniak and a sophomore at Carmichaels Area High School.
In fact, this was the fourth banner Demniak has won at the state show. He also showed the grand champion market lamb in 2012 and 2013 and the reserve grand champion in 2015.
Demniak also has had some success on the national level. In November, his lamb placed first in the Hampshire breed class at the North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Ky.
What is the key to his success?
“I just started when I was really young,” Demniak said Wednesday, after arriving home from Harrisburg. “I got into 4-H, and my parents really have supported me and helped me get better.”
The Demniaks likewise provided a bounty of support to the runner-up – and the lamb itself.
Alexa Miles, 13, of Hickory, won reserve grand champion with Harry, a 154-pound cross-breed she purchased from Hayden Demniak in September.
“There’s no one I’d rather be ‘reserve’ to than Hayden because he helps me so much,” said Miles, an eighth-grader at Fort Cherry Middle/High School. “I wouldn’t have won without help from him and has dad, Dave.”
She said this was the second time she showed livestock at the farm show, but has attended the annual event “most of my life.” Miles said two aunts and her mother previously showed livestock at the farm show without winning, but did well in Washington County shows.
Demniak said he has learned much from his father but also attends other livestock shows to pick up tips from other participants.
“I’ve gone all over the country to learn how to get better at showing and how to make the animal better,” he said.
It takes a good amount of dedication not only in regard to learning how to produce a champion lamb and present it properly in the show ring but also in regard to spending the time to work with the animal to make it champion caliber.
It all starts with purchasing a lamb with just the right genetic characteristics, Demniak said. For the last four years, he said, he has purchased his lambs from Viking Club Lambs in the state of Indiana.
The rest is all up to him. Each day before school, Demniak said, he feeds and waters his lamb. Later, after he gets home, he usually spends about an hour working with the animal.
Demniak said he exercises the animal to help it develop the correct muscles and must make sure it follows a very strict diet. He said he also must train the lamb for show.
“It takes a lot of time and effort to get them trained on how to act properly in the ring,” he said.
Demniak apparently followed his plan to a T with Loaki, who is so named because Demniak wanted to keep the lamb “low key” and a secret until it was ready for show.
At the farm show, the lamb had been chosen as the grand champion of the Hampshire division before being named the show’s overall grand champion.
Demniak has participated in 4-H for the last eight years and is a member of the Rolling Hills 4-H Livestock Club in Fayette County.
What’s next? Demniak said he will take about a month off and then start back up with a new lamb. Raising champion lambs is more than a hobby to him, and the work he has committed to it over the years should pay off later in life.
Demniak said he plans to attend college and major in animal sciences.
Staff writer Rick Shrum contributed to this report.