Ontario County 4-H Members Compete At The NAILE Livestock Educational Competitions
The New York State 4-H Livestock Program is proud to announce that this year they had two teams participate in the North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky. New York State 4-H had teams participate in Livestock Skillathon and Livestock Judging contest. This year the Skillathon contest had 22 state teams from across the country participate, the largest number of teams ever, and 34 state teams participate in the Livestock Judging Competition.
This year’s Livestock Judging contest consisted of 11 classes of animals including beef, sheep, swine and meat goats. Beyond just judging, every contestant then had to give 4 sets of reasons on justifying their placings to the judges.
The Livestock Skillathon contest consisted of both individual and team questions. The team had to answer questions on quality assurance, livestock nutrition and animal performance and marketing. For the individual portion of the contest 4-H members had to participate in six stations including Hay evaluation, wool evaluation, Breeds of livestock, equipment used in the livestock industry, meat cut identification and a quality assurance problem.
Participating in the 4-H Livestock Judging Competition for 2023 was Max Pullis from Otsego County, Anna Hawkes from Herkimer County, Evelyn Kersmanc from Otsego County and Laken Dyn from Herkimer County. This year’s team was coached by Kate Preston from Madison County.
Back Row- Brian Aukema, Amy Pyra Image courtesy of Brian J. Aukema
This year’s 4-H Livestock Skillathon participants included Olivia Maslyn from Ontario County, Evelyn Kersmanc from Otsego County, Anikka Parshall from Ontario County and Wyatt Wadams from Ontario County. This year’s team was coached by Amy Pyra from Ontario County. Congratulations to Evelyn on placing 6th high individual in Quality Assurance and to Annika on placing 10th high individual in Evaluation.
Congratulations to all these NYS 4-H members.
If you have any questions about the NYS 4-H Livestock program or are interested in sponsoring teams in the future, please contact Brian Aukema NYS 4-H Livestock and Companion Animal Specialist at bja14@cornell.edu or at 607-254-1208.