Over 200 judging team members and coaches arrived at the Hoard’s Dairyman Farm on Sunday morning at 9:00 a.m. to judge a class of Guernsey four-year old cows. Although it rained early in the morning, the raindrops did not fall on our guests.

The four cows were led for the group to evaluate. No official placing is given, but it is at the discretion of the coaches to determine the correct placing.

The four cows in the class have also all been professionally photographed and can be found on our website. For those who attended the practice, here are the animals we used: Cow 1 (Pheature), Cow 2 (Polly), Cow 3 (Leader), and Cow 4 (Grumpy).

After evaluating the class, teams walked around the farm and checked out our visitor center. In addition to the farm stop on Sunday morning, they toured Nasco and the National Dairy Shrine. All were treated to a hot pasta lunch, compliments of Nasco and Hoard’s Dairyman.

Earlier in the weekend, teams stopped at other farms to judge various breeds in preparation for the national contests.

4-H, post-secondary, and university teams will all start judging at 8:00 a.m. on Monday morning in the Coliseum on the World Dairy Expo grounds in Madison, Wis. After a full day of judging and delivering multiple sets of reasons, the awards reception begins at 6:30 p.m. and the banquets begin at 7:30 p.m. The university and post-secondary banquets are held in conjunction, rotating award announcements. The 4-H banquet is held in another room in the Exhibition Hall. The award presentations for 4-H are running concurrently with the college contests.

To help fans of all three teams stay up-to-date with the results, Hoard’s Dairyman will be attending all banquets and posting the results (all breeds, individuals, and teams) as they are announced. Feel free to like, share, and comment on our posts as you cheer on your family members, your alma mater, and all participants in the youth judging contests.

For the history buffs, a record of past winning teams and individuals for all divisions can be found on our Hoard’s at Expo blog page.

Good luck to all teams competing in these national contests!