CLINTON, Tenn. (WATE) — An Anderson County High School student has cemented her place in the school’s FFA program.
Gracie Giles‘ passion for showing livestock started in the fourth grade and since then she’s been on the path to success. She is up in the morning before most of her classmates, caring for the animals on her family’s farm and her work doesn’t stop when school lets out.
“I come to the barn, and I wash the heifers and work their hair and blow them completely dry and then I walk my pigs and wash them,” Giles said.
The sophomore has been showing pigs, sheep, heifers and steers since elementary school and she’s proving that livestock show is an art.
“When I first started showing I had no expectations. All I wanted to do was win my class,” Giles said.
Giles far exceeded her own expectations when she was named this year’s 2022 East Tennessee Star Greenhand. She is consistently taking top honors at livestock shows across the country. The banners and plaques she has on display are a reflection of her hard work and dedication to agriculture.
“I just love it because it’s such a positive environment. The Ag industry as a whole is so welcoming to everybody,” Giles said.
Giles turned her passion into purpose when her award-winning steer was sent to market and delivered to Second Harvest Food Bank to feed people in the Nashville area. She credits a large part of her success to the people who are in her corner.
“I quite frankly could not do this without the support of my friends, my family, my teachers, and the Anderson County School System,” Giles said.
Giles already sells freezer beef and markets it on a commercial scale. Her plan after high school is to attend a junior college to judge livestock before transferring to Oklahoma State University. Her dream is to be the United States Secretary of Agriculture.
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