The University of Wisconsin-Madison, Modesto Junior College, Maryland 4-H and Minnesota FFA were top teams in their divisions at the 43rd Annual Invitational Youth Dairy Cattle Judging Contest, held Sept. 19 during the 2011 All-American Dairy Show in Harrisburg, Penn.
From as far as California and Florida, 141 youth on 38 teams competed in the 4-H, FFA, Junior (2-year) College and Senior Collegiate divisions. The contest included dairy cattle evaluation and oral reasons components.
University of Wisconsin-Madison
Just 16 points separated the Wisconsin-Madison team from the second place team in the Collegiate Division, which featured 14 teams. Chelsea Brander, Danielle Brown, Laura Elliott and Carissa Levash comprise the winning team, coached by Brian Kelroy and Chad Wethal.
Brown was high individual overall in the contest, while Levash was third-high. The team placed second in reasons to the University of Minnesota.
Remaining teams in the top five
2nd – Michigan State University
3rd – Penn State University
4th – University of Wisconsin-River Falls
5th – University of Minnesota
Individuals in the top five overall
1st – Danielle Brown, University of Wisconsin-Madison
2nd – Sara Bechtel, Penn State University
3rd – Carissa Levash, University of Wisconsin-Madison
4th – Mary Johnson, University of Wisconsin-River Falls
5th – Tera Koebel, Michigan State University
Wisconsin places 2nd in 4-H Division
The Maryland and Wisconsin 4-H teams' scores both totaled 1,910 to tie for first place in the division of 15 states. Wisconsin achieved higher placing scores, while Maryland achieved higher reasons scores. In this tiebreaker event the team with the higher reasons score won – Maryland 4-H.
Top five teams in the division
1st – Maryland
2nd – Wisconsin
3rd – Pennsylvania
4th – Kentucky
5th – Minnesota
Top five individuals
1st – Janelle Remington, Wisconsin
2nd – Lizzie Davis, Maryland
3rd – Miquela Hanselman, New York
4th – Austin Jaggers, Kentucky
5th – Mary Liebenstein, Minnesota
Other team members competing from Wisconsin were: Erik Warmka, Carrie Warmka and Brad Warmka, All Wisconsin 4-H members competing at the contest were from Dodge County. Dodge County placed third at the Wisconsin 4-H Dairy Judging Contest held in Marshfield in July.