Henry County, like many other former tobacco dependent counties, has had a renewed push towards beef production. According to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, Henry County has nearly $1,000,000 in beef animal sales yearly. However, the average farmer age is ­­­­­57.6 years old according to the National Agriculture Statistically Service, 2016, so the Henry County Extension wanted to find a way to encourage more youth to participate in raising beef. The Henry County Youth Best Beef Carcass Contest was created to address this issue. During this contest, youth from ages 9 to 15 years of age must raise a beef of their choosing with a feed ration of their choice, have their beef processed and graded, attend a three part educational series, and give speeches about “How the Animal Was Raised” and “How Would I Market This Animal”. A total of 6 youth, ages 9-14 years old, participated in this project with a mixture of beef and dairy animals along with multiple feeding styles. Feeding styles include grain silage, pasture raised, pasture-grain, and silage-grain mixture. All youth completed the 3-part educational sessions which taught Beef Nutrition and Digestive System, Beef Processing, and Beef Marketing.  All youth raised an animal for processing, attended animal ID, completed the 3-part educational sessions, processed their beef animals, and gave their speeches. From their hard work, $200 was raised through donations, and put towards the processing fee of their animals. From evaluations, all youth agreed they could explain the beef digestive systems, understood what it meant to finish a beef, and understood some struggles of the beef industry. Other positive comments included, “I really liked the education things, can we have more next year?”, “I understand I didn’t have the best beef animal this year, but I know what I need to do next year!”,  and “It was great working with my dad!” From these comments, this program was a success, and all six participants want to help build the project for future years.