DENVER — Several students started off the year carrying on Hancock County’s agricultural heritage by succeeding in a national competition that put their livestock knowledge to the test.
A team from Eastern Hancock High School won the livestock judging contest at the Western National Roundup at Colorado State University in Denver in early January. Students from Mt. Vernon High School placed fourth in beef grading at the event.
The annual competition is open to members of 4-H and FFA, which both offer agriculture-related activities to youth.
East meets west
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Eastern Hancock’s team was made up of twin brothers Conner and Hunter Knudson, juniors; Reed Hedrick, a sophomore; and Ashtyn Harvey, a sophomore. They represented Indiana in the livestock judging competition and went up against 27 teams from other states.
The team qualified for the Denver event after coming in second at a state competition at Purdue University in September. The winning team from that competition competed in a national competition in Louisville, allowing the Eastern Hancock students to compete in Colorado.
Competing in the 4-H part of the competition, the students evaluated cattle, pigs, sheep and goats. They assessed four per species, classifying them in order of quality. Students did so in terms of both breeding and market. For breeding, they looked at the animals’ structure and appearance; for market, muscle was the name of the game.
“Some days I’ll just see animals better than others,” Reed said. “Some days it just clicks, and some days you look at a class and all four look the same; you have no clue what to do.”
It clicked in Colorado. The students said they don’t think Eastern Hancock had done that well in a national competition since the late 2000s.
“Our school has had a reputation of being a good livestock-judging school,” Reed said.
And agricultural competitions in general, he continued, gesturing toward the totes in a classroom filled with awards that the trophy case isn’t big enough to fit.
As the competition got closer, they prepared by practicing two to three times a week for anywhere from two to five hours at a time, Hunter said.
They didn’t have to travel far to practice. The Knudsons’ family raises sheep; Reed’s raises cows; and Ashtyn’s raises cows and pigs.
Another aspect that helped them, Conner said, was that their team is so tight-knit. It’s not uncommon for states to put together “all-star” teams, he continued, made up of students who excel but who go to different schools and live far from one another.
“That makes it hard for them to practice and get everyone together,” Reed said.
Eastern Hancock’s livestock judging team, conversely, is made up of close friends who all go to the same school and started in FFA around the same time.
They’re also all relatively on the same skill level. Reed recalled how each of them has been the leading scorer during a competition; each has also ended up with the lowest score on the team.
A lot of teams have one really good competitor compared to their other teammates, Conner said.
“If they have a bad day, the whole team has a bad day,” he added. “With us, we’ve all been first and last on the team, so we’re all subsequently the anchors almost. We pull everyone across.”
He said he’s grateful for the school’s strong FFA program, which helps fund members’ participation in activities.
“We’re really fortunate from that aspect,” Conner said. “We get to go on all these cool trips and compete at these high-quality contests.”
Reed said he enjoys traveling, meeting new people and forging cross-country camaraderie.
“I know people from everywhere,” he said. “I might see someone twice a year, but I can go right up to them and have a conversation.”
For Hunter, achievements have kept him coming back to the competitions year after year.
“It’s just fun to know what you’re doing so you can be successful,” he said.
Mt. Vernon goes mile high
Competing on the FFA side of the Western National Roundup in Denver, Mt. Vernon High School students came in fourth out of 13 in beef grading and 12th out of 13 overall in the meat judging competition.
The team was made up of Kaeden Smith, a senior; and juniors Madisen Carns and Ruthie Lamaster.
Lucinda Blair, Mt. Vernon FFA adviser, agriculture teacher, 2013 graduate and former FFA member, said it was the first time in decades the school has qualified for a national ag contest.
They, too, qualified with a second-place finish during September’s state competition at Purdue.
Kaeden said they competed in Denver by evaluating carcasses while applying formulas and other techniques to assign a U.S. Department of Agriculture quality grade of prime, choice or select.
The competition also called for them to identify retail cuts of meat from lamb, pork and beef.
They conducted yield grading as well, which determines the amount of usable meat form a carcass.
In addition, they took a multiple-choice test on the meat industry that covered topics like grading, production, meat legislation and Upton Sinclair’s “The Jungle.” The novel, written in 1906, depicted the harsh working conditions in the meat-packing industry.
Kaeden said he and his teammates prepared by reviewing past tests and quizzes and visiting butcher shops to learn different ways of doing quality and yield grading.
“A lot of it is just hearing over and over again everyone’s different ways of doing things,” Kaeden said.
The students held their own despite their adviser’s lack of experience in meat grading.
“I am so proud of those kids,” Blair said. “…My first day at Mt. Vernon — Ruthie came up to me and said, ‘Before I graduate, we’re going to go to a national contest for meat judging.’ And I was like, ‘OK, girl, that’s a big dream.’ And sure enough, we went. Completely self-led. I’ve tried to help them as much as I can, but my knowledge is very limited, and now they’re way smarter than me.”
Kaeden said he enjoys competitions like the one in Denver because he gets to learn things he’d otherwise only be able to experience at the collegiate level.
“You’re never going to see this or experience this in any type of ag program or any school,” he said. “…This is unique knowledge that you’re never going to get anywhere else.”
Madisen said the knowledge and experience will help with her future career plans, which switched to agriculture ever since she started in FFA her sophomore year. She wants to attend Purdue University and major in animal science with a focus in pre-veterinary medicine while minoring in agribusiness.
Kaeden will attend Purdue in the fall to pursue a major in plant genetics and minors in biotechnology and water and soil science. His career plans also changed after joining FFA.
Neither Kaeden nor Madisen come from agricultural families.
“Me and Madisen, we come from living in a neighborhood,” Kaeden said. “We see corn on the way to school and that’s about it. But now we’ve come into this organization and our career paths have completely changed, and we both want to go into the ag industry completely full force and make a difference.”
Ruthie said in an email that she likes ag competitions like the recent one in Denver because she learns a lot, particularly lessons that help in everyday life.
“I used to be really shy and never talked to anyone,” she said, “but since I have competed in events like these, I have developed great public speaking and leadership skills.”
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Western National Roundup
Denver, Colorado
First place, livestock judging: Eastern Hancock High School
Fourth place, beef grading: Mt. Vernon High School
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“Me and Madisen, we come from living in a neighborhood. We see corn on the way to school and that’s about it. But now we’ve come into this organization and our career paths have completely changed, and we both want to go into the ag industry completely full force and make a difference.”
Kaeden Smith
Senior, Mt. Vernon High School
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