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Kyle Green | The Roanoke Times

Joy Powers, 17, showed this sheep at the annual Central Virginia Livestock Show last weekend. Joy won many awards there.

While most of her Staunton River High School classmates were still sound asleep, getting beauty sleep for Saturday night's prom, Joy Powers was wide awake in the barn behind her house.

At 5 a.m., Joy, 17, woke up to load her animals -- four goats, one heifer and two sheep -- and head to Lynchburg for the 29th Annual Central Virginia Livestock Show.

After a day of hard work, Joy was named grand champion in the prestigious market lamb contest, among other honors.

She had a busy day full of livestock contests -- with a brief intermission to get her hair styled by a friend in a barn -- and her head didn't hit the pillow until about 3 a.m. Sunday, after she danced the night away in her black-and-white dress at the junior prom.

Joy, who is president of the Bedford County 4-H Club and co-president of the Staunton River High School Future Farmers of America, has been showing livestock since she was in elementary school.

"A lot of kids had playgrounds," said Joy. "When I was little, I came to the barn to play."

Like many of her peers in FFA, the 11th-grader's parents grew up participating in the club, and their children happily follow suit.

"I think we all enjoy it," said Joy, who wants to become an agricultural photographer. "Even though our families were in it, it was our choice."

Joy has been all over the country showing livestock, but she's been showing at the Central Virginia Livestock Show for years.

This year she took a heifer, sheep and goats -- three of the four species involved in the show. Joy doesn't have any swine, and the chickens she keeps aren't for show.

She competed in showmanship, heifer, ewe lamb, market lamb, market goat and doe goat competitions.

Showmanship competitions judge the way the human leads and controls the animals.

"You want to show them off as well as possible and that makes you look good," explained Hannah Poole, a 17-year-old Staunton River High School senior who also competed in Saturday's show.

Heifer, ewe lamb and doe goat competitions -- or breeding classes -- judge how well the animals would reproduce. The market classes judge the meat of the "terminal" animals that are sold after the show.

Sure, Saturday was busy, but youngsters who show livestock have to work all year taking care of their animals.

"We have good work ethics," Hannah said. "Like sometimes you have to stay home. ..."

"...Or come home early," continued Joy. "But I think it's worth it in the long run."

Jeff Powers, Joy's dad, is a 4-H leader and livestock coach for both 4-H and FFA. He said the students he works with are getting a lot out of the programs.

"It teaches them responsibility, leadership, public speaking, record keeping," he said. "Basically almost every aspect of their lives to come is enhanced by 4-H and FFA."