Dairy judging through the nation

LAKE CITY, Minn. — The dairy cattle evaluation and management team from the Lake City FFA Chapter was welcomed onto the stage Oct. 25 as they were announced as the second-place team overall at the National FFA Convention & Expo in Indianapolis, Indiana.

The team consisted of Blake Siewert, a junior, and Emily and Ashley Mellgren and Lillian Schumacher, all freshmen. Individually, Siewert placed fifth, Ashley was ninth, Emily was 12th and Schumacher was 21st.

“It was a really cool experience being on the stage in front of 60,000 people,” Ashley said. “Especially since it was our first time competing in dairy judging (for FFA) and right away we made it to nationals.”

Siewert and the Mellgrens come from dairy farms, where their passion for the industry began. Schumacher said she was drawn to the industry because of the Mellgrens and because dairy farmers are active in their community.

“My mom grew up on a farm,” Schumacher said. “I kind of always wanted to show dairy at the county fair, so one year I asked Ashley and Emily if I could lease from them, and I have been showing ever since.”

When it came time for the awards ceremony at the national convention the whole team was excited and anxious to see how they did.

“It was really exciting, especially since we are a really young team,” Ashley said. “We were kind of nervous going into this contest because we were going against freshman in college and didn’t really know how we would do.”

After winning the state contest, the team knew they had to put in the work to do well at nationals.

“We did dairy judging practice through 4-H with our 4-H dairy judging coach, Kayla Sexton, so that was our practice over the summer,” Siewert said. “We did some special practices where we went to different farms to practice judging cattle this fall.”

A part of the contest at the national level includes a presentation on a topic selected by the National FFA Organization. In preparation for this, the team worked with their FFA adviser, Haely Leiding, and another dairy specialist to gain as much knowledge about the topic as possible.

“(This year) it was on dairy cattle housing and facilities,” Siewert said. “We gained the knowledge for that portion of the contest and presenting it.”

The team took first place in the presentation section of the competition.

“When we got done (with the presentation), we were all super excited because we thought we did well and were happy with ourselves and how it turned out,” Emily said.

The Mellgrens said the presentation was their favorite portion because they enjoyed discussing problems on dairy farms and looking into solutions to help them out.

“Evaluating that as a team was a cool experience, especially getting feedback from the judges,” Ashley said.

Judging and evaluating cattle was another task the team enjoyed.

“My favorite part of the contest was judging because that is what I know the most of and what I feel I can do the best on,” Schumacher said.

Siewert agreed with the Mellgrens and Schumacher that the presentation and evaluation are the best parts of the competition. The final part of the contest is the practicum.

“We practiced the test portion of the contest that is basically dairy quiz bowl questions,” Siewert said.

The whole team has been active in dairy judging since they were in fifth grade. Siewert and the Mellgrens have also been participating in dairy quiz bowl since.

“We all have a good background in the dairy industry,” Ashley said. “It is one thing we all grew up loving and it’s our passion. When we came together as a team we worked well together because we all have knowledge on our own part.”

Some memories that stick out to the team include their bonding experiences between FFA and 4-H, competing and practicing together, and being on stage at both the state and national level.

“One of my favorite memories is all of us standing on stage and being called first at state and then second at nationals,” Emily said.

Looking forward, the team plans to continue their dairy judging with 4-H. They hope to earn a trip to compete at World Dairy Expo or the All-American Dairy Show in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, because they are no longer eligible to compete in FFA dairy evaluation and management.

“We are planning on doing dairy foods for a new competition in FFA,” Ashley said. “We gave it our best effort and it paid off with all the hard work we did this summer, so we were really excited with the results.”