Jacob Dimond / jake@yelmonline.com
Though Bailey Mounts will begin her first year of high school in September, her roots to Yelm’s Future Farmers of America (FFA) chapter trace back to her earliest memories.
Her father, Matt, who is Yelm High School’s (YHS) newly hired athletic director and a longtime Yelm FFA adviser, has been involved in the local FFA chapter for 25 years, and his daughter said she’s been around the club for as long as she can remember.
Mounts officially began her agricultural career by becoming involved with the local 4-H club when she was just seven years old. During her younger years involved in the activity, she leaned on more seasoned 4-H and FFA members to help expand her knowledge and guide her while she was still learning.
“My dad’s always been an adviser, and so I’ve been coming to the fair since I was little. I would just watch and help out where I could,” Mounts said on Friday, Aug. 1. “Yelm FFA has been family to me ever since I was little.”
For many FFA members across the region, the Thurston County Fair marks the culmination of hard work and the blood, sweat and tears that goes into raising a farm animal for sale. Mounts, who said she was thrilled to participate in her first county fair as a high schooler, described what goes down during the annual event.
“We get to bring our animals, and you can exhibit all sorts of things. We can bring animals here, compete, wear our FFA jackets and show all the hard work we’re putting into it,” Mounts said. “It really shows another side of the FFA and the agriculture world — not just competing in contests but showing in the work you’ve put in at home with feeding and working every day. I don’t think there’s an animal here that could’ve been loved more.”
Mounts’ efforts leading up to the annual Thurston County Fair paid off, as the incoming freshman earned the title of the round robin competition’s reserve grand champion. She also earned the honor of grand champion senior showman in the beef category, along with the grand champion market steer overall for the FFA competition at the fair.
In 2025, which marks Mounts’ first year as a high school FFA member, the incoming freshman showed two animals at the Thurston County Fair — a steer and a hog. Though this wasn’t her first year selling a steer at the annual event, Mounts said she took a tremendous amount of pride in this particular cattle sale because it’s an animal she’s raised since the day it was born.
“I’ve been showing steers for a really long time, so this isn’t too new to me. I’m just wearing a blue and gold jacket now,” Mounts said, in reference to the Yelm chapter’s blue and gold team jackets. “I’ve been working on breeding projects since I was born, basically. My steer was born on my farm, and so I was there when he was born. I was there to take him to the vet when he needed help to get cut. I feed him twice a day. There’s all sorts of feeds, but you have to make their diet specific towards them so they can grow and have a healthy carcass when we resell.”
Over the last year, Mounts tended to her steer daily by feeding and watering it, along with other activities to ensure it stays healthy. The amount of effort that goes into raising an animal from birth to sale was challenging but even more rewarding, she said.
“I’ve had an experience with buying an animal and showing it, but with my bred and own, where I’ve picked the bull and bred the animal, I watched it be born and grow into what it’s become now. It’s tremendous because it’s not a two-week span. It’s not two months. It’s been a whole year of raising this animal to get to where it is right now,” Mounts said. “It’s so much work, but it’s so rewarding. You know you’ve put all the love and effort that you can into this animal, and I don’t think an animal could get treated better than being here with FFA and 4-H kids.”
Though Mounts has been around Yelm’s FFA chapter since she was a young kid, she described her high school involvement as “a new world” due to her actually being able to work hands-on at the school and with the animals.
“It’s a new world with the involvement and being at the high school all the time. 4-H was on my own, but now I’m involved with the school and the community more,” Mounts said. “I’ve done so many community service hours this summer, and I haven’t even had my first day of high school yet. It’s definitely different, but I like it. There’s a lot of connections I can make. I’ve talked to a lot of people I would’ve never talked to, and made new friendships too.”
While she continues to navigate her way through being a high school FFA member, Mounts also took the opportunity to reflect on her previous experiences with and around the program.
“Being part of the Yelm FFA chapter has been very exciting because I’m not on my own, and I know I have people to help me. I have great advisers who I’ve been able to build bonds with over a short period of time,” she said. “Since school got out, I’ve been going with my dad to the school and working in the green house, seeing the barn and the animals. Belonging to a chapter of people all from Yelm, I know they experience the same things I do with agriculture and raising animals. We all go to the same feed stores. We all talk to the same people for marketing. It’s nice to be part of a chapter of kids who all experience the same thing, regardless of the animals they have.”
