Local 4-Her's attend state Livestock Sweepstakes

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Kansas State University's Department of Animal Sciences and Industry hosted the first-ever Kansas 4-H Livestock Sweepstakes event on August 22-23 in Weber Hall. Participants from Bourbon County were Seth Bartlett, Cole and Drew George, Reed Gleason, Tanner Howard and Katelyn Vincent, representing the Barnstormers, Hiattville and Uniontown 4-H Clubs.

4-H members learned new skills and polished up on skills they already in order to be competitive in the Sweepstakes event which consisted of four contests.

The Livestock Judging contest consisted of eight judging classes and four sets of reasons. Reed Gleason placed 2nd in beef, 3rd in reasons and was 3rd overall.

While the Meats Judging contest was based on identification of thirty retail cuts, six placings classes of retail cuts and carcasses and three sets of reasons. Katelyn Vincent placed 7th overall while Drew George was 10th. As a team, Bourbon County was 2nd in placings, 3rd in identification, and 3rd place overall team.

In the Livestock Skillathon, 4-Hers rotated individually through stations that addressed six areas of animal science. Those included feedstuffs, breed identification, equipment identification, retail meat identification, and reading a medicine label. There was also a team component where members worked together on selecting ewes based on a given scenario, a written test. Katelyn Vincent placed 4th overall in this portion of the weekend.

The Livestock Quiz Bowl started with a qualifying exam. The eight teams with the highest average scores competed head to head against each other. Bourbon County was seated 4th after the test, but ended up 5th after the head to head matches.

For the overall Sweepstakes contest which takes into account all four contests, Katelyn Vincent was 4th and Drew George 10th while Bourbon County ended up 4th overall.

Having fun while learning was part of the weekend! In addition to the Call Hall ice cream social, team members from Bourbon County had the opportunity to witness the K-State Marching Band up close and personal while they performed in Aggieville.