Fleetwood all business when it comes to competing

FleetwoodBy SEAN CLOUGHERTY
Managing Editor

SMYRNA, Del. — Whether it’s wrestling or showing animals, Brent Fleetwood wants to win.
Fleetwood, who’s been showing animals, starting with dairy heifers, since he was 7, is taking a market hog and a market steer to the Delaware State Fair this year.
But first he has to compete in a wrestling tournament in North Dakota which will cause him to miss the first two days of fair but not any of his shows. At 15, he is a nationally ranked wrestler for his age and weight and said he puts that same competitive drive into raising and preparing his animals for the fair.
“When you’re doing this, you take it a step further and you try harder,” he said. “You’ve got to work at it.”
With the animals that means feeding daily, daily trips to the wash rack for the steer and weighing the hogs each week and monitoring their rate of gain closely to get them in the best weight class.
Fleetwood estimates about nine to 10 hours a week goes to working with the animals in addition to daily wrestling practice and trips to tournaments all over the country.
“It’s pretty intense,” said his father, Frank. “I was taught if you’re going to do it, you want to do the best you can.”
And, like wrestling, Brent has had some success in showing in recent years. Three years ago, his hog was named reserve champion barrow and reserve champion market hog and two years ago — his first year showing a steer — the beef animal made it to the fair’s Livestock Extravaganza having won it’s class.
The Fleetwoods don’t live on a farm, and thus rely on friends to help them with housing their animals. The hogs are kept at the Voss family’s dairy farm in Kenton, Del., where an old farrowing barn had been vacant for years. Brent said he’s grateful to Ruth Voss and her son Buddy for getting him interested in showing animals.
Frank said that Brent and Dylan Voss were in the same wrestling club years ago and Dylan’s father, Buddy, gave Brent his first dairy heifer to show.
“It was just sitting here,” Frank said of the farrowing barn, “and one day we said ‘Why don’t we try to raise some pigs?’ This is just ideal. You couldn’t ask for anything better to raise hogs in.”
Brent Fleetwood is one of four youths, including Dylan, Chelsea Warren, Ryan Seymore and Zara Collison, who keep hogs in the Voss’ barn and will show them at the fair.
The steer stays at Trudy and Richard Hastings’ property in Townsend, Del. Their son, Josh Hastings, who exhibited cattle for years and judged cattle in the Midwest, was coached in football by Frank years ago and has now worked with Brent to get the steer ready for the ring.
“He’s 10-fold ahead of where I was at his age,” Josh said of Brent. “He’s got a bright future.”
Brent said he likes the steer’s chances in the ring and is excited about showing swine another year.
“Plus,” he said, “I have to cut weight for this tournament so when I come to the fair I can eat whatever I want.”