HD Notebook
Nov. 12 2024 09:22 AM

The high individuals powered their judging teams to victory

Florida 4-H, Ohio State ATI, and Purdue University are NAILE’s top teams

By Patti Hurtgen, Online Media Manager

The George Heersche, Jr. award recipients – Morgan Stone, Lauren Homan, and Josh Larson

Louisville, Ky., was host to the North American International Livestock Exposition dairy judging contests this past weekend. Cattle judging took place on Saturday, and the awards breakfast was held on Sunday morning. There was some jockeying for position since the last national judging contests were held at World Dairy Expo. Florida 4-H was second, Ohio State ATI was third, and Purdue was fourth in their respective divisions just a month ago before topping the competition in Louisville.

The high individuals in the youth (4-H and FFA combined), two-year college, and university contests were Josh Larson of Florida 4-H, Lauren Homan of Ohio State ATI, and Morgan Stone of Purdue University. Larson, who did not win an individual breed, possessed an overall five-point advantage over Logan Harbaugh of Wisconsin 4-H in the youth division. A 20-point margin was seen by Lauren Homan over Lauryn Young in the two-year college division. This was a switch from World Dairy Expo. Stone distanced herself by 24 points from her nearest competitor in the University division. The top overall individuals receive a special honor – the George Heersche, Jr. Award, named for the long-time dairy extension specialist and contest organizer.

Team recognitions

Florida 4-H with coach Gene Holcomb: Kathryn Montesdeoca, Sophia Caves, and Josh Larson. Lilly Larson is not pictured.

Florida 4-H topped Wisconsin 4-H by six points, followed by Minnesota 4-H in third, Iowa 4-H in fourth, and Ohio 4-H in fifth. There were 19 4-H and FFA teams.

Ohio State ATI: Emma Givens, Lauren Homan, Bradley Gotto, and Christian Martig with coach Royce Thornton.

Ohio State ATI bested Modesto Junior College (California) by 11 points. SUNY-Cobleskill, Michigan State University Ag Tech, and SUNY-Morrisville followed.

Purdue University: Coach Brian Engelking, Evan Coblentz, Jackie Mudd, Morgan Stone, and Cade Ziegler.

Twelve points was the margin of victory for Purdue University as they edged out their neighbor, The Ohio State University. Iowa State University took third, followed by Penn State University in fourth, and Virginia Tech in fifth. Thirteen university teams competed.

By breeds
It was a border battle in the youth division, as Wisconsin 4-H took the Ayrshire and Guernsey breeds, while Minnesota 4-H won Brown Swiss, Holsteins, and oral reasons. Jerseys were won by Virginia 4-H.

In the five breed divisions of the two-year college contest, The Ohio State ATI won four of them – Ayrshires, Brown Swiss, Guernseys and Holsteins. SUNY-Cobleskill took Jerseys, and Modesto Junior College won reasons.

The ribbon wealth was equally distributed in the university contest. Iowa State University won Ayrshires and Jerseys, while the University of Wisconsin-Madison captured the Brown Swiss, Purdue University took the Guernsey breed and oral reasons, and The Ohio State University claimed the Jersey breed.

Individual honors
Oral reasons in the youth division was won by Cameron Ryan of Wisconsin 4-H. He tied Harbaugh, Haley Ronnebaum of Iowa 4-H, and Dan Frericks of Minnesota 4-H, who took second, third, and fourth, respectively, after tie-breakers.

Young of Modesto Junior College won the two-year college contest reasons portion by an impressive 10 points. She repeated her oral reasons title from Expo last month.

Stone paired her high overall individual honors with the top reasons score in the university contest. Her reasons score topped Penn State’s Emory Bewley, who finished second, and Purdue’s Evan Coblentz, who was third, by five points.
University Top Individuals
Front: Morgan Stone (1st), Whitney Yerina, The Ohio State (not pictured); Emory Bewley, Penn State; Naomi Scott, Iowa State; William Seedorf, The Ohio State.
Back: Irene Nielsen (7th), Iowa State; Brady McCumons, The Ohio State, Adria Russell, Penn State; and Rhianna Bruursema, Michigan State.

Patti Hurtgen

The author is the online media manager and is responsible for the website, webinars, podcasts, and social media. A graduate of Modesto Junior College and Fresno State, and recently completed a master’s degree in communication from University of Wisconsin-Whitewater. Hurtgen was raised on a California dairy and blogs on youth programs and consumer issues.

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