NCTA Livestock Judging Team bring home awards

NCTA Livestock Judging Team bring home awards

2015-16 NCTA Livestock Judging Team
2015-16 NCTA Livestock Judging Team

Our competition teams at the Nebraska College of Technical Agriculture are starting their winter and spring travel season.  This means they put in many hours of hard work on campus, in addition to off-campus team workouts and miles on the road.

The livestock judging team coached by Dr. Doug Smith just returned from a weekend contest at Sioux Falls, S.D., where the team place sixth overall.  These livestock evaluators are a great group of students. I am very proud of their commitment and perseverance.

At the Sioux Empire Farm Show contest, they placed in the following categories:

-        5th place team in Beef Cattle

-        5th place team in Sheep and Goats

-        6th place in Oral Reasons

-        8th place team in Swine

-        6th place Team Overall

Team members and coaches were very busy last month. Students came back to campus early for second semester so they could travel to area farms, purebred cattle ranches and feedlots to evaluate livestock before classes resumed on January 11th.

Then, that next weekend they traveled to Lincoln for the University of Nebraska “Mock Contest” with their counterparts at UNL and with other colleges and had a good day there, reported Coach Smith.

I got to witness their professionalism and team spirit as they represented NCTA during the National Western Stock Show and Rodeo in Denver three weeks ago. That was another long, grueling day of being on their feet at the Coliseum as they reviewed 12 classes representing four species of livestock (beef cattle, swine, sheep, and goats), and also at the carload beef cattle show.

NCTA was 18th in the Collegiate Contest and 20th in the Carload Contest at the National Western in Denver. A great start to their season!

Livestock judging tests not only the individual’s livestock knowledge and visual evaluation, but the ability of the judge to provide justification of their selections and placings, known as oral reasons.  NCTA had two teams of students – those in their second year and the freshmen team.  Assistant coach is Emily Whipple of Cambridge, in her third year at NCTA.

Watch for more outcomes from our NCTA students in the coming weeks.  Their next contest is February 13 at the Iowa Beef Expo in Des Moines, Iowa.

Team members and their communities are:

Eleanor Aufdenkamp, North Platte; Alaina Kauffman, Gretna; Emilye Vales, DeWitt; Braden Wilke, Columbus; Heath Buchanan, Douglas; Calvin DeVries, Fairfield; Raymond Fleer, Pierce; Bailey Hinrichs, Ayr; Shane Hoer, Blair; Wade Sexton, Plattsmouth; and Eric Shoop, Dalmatia, Penn.

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