The UW-Madison Dairy Cattle Judging Team continued a 24-year streak of top-five finishes at the 88th Annual National Collegiate Dairy Cattle Judging Contest, September 29, 2008 in Madison, Wis. The team finished third with 2,391 points and placed first in the oral reasons. Since 1980, Badger judges have won the prestigious Oral Reasons competition at the National Contest 18 times.
Leading the way for the Badger team was Daniel Walker of Portage, Wis. finishing fifth high individual overall with 817 points, earning him All-American recognition. Walker placed first in oral reasons earning 288 out of 300 possible points, the second highest all-time point total in Oral Reasons at the National Contest.
Ted Halbach, Dairy Cattle Evaluation Instructor and Dr. Dave Dickson, Emeritus Professor coached the team.
"With his high individual finish in Oral Reasons, Daniel Walker joined just a handful of individuals to win Reasons both at the National Intercollegiate Contest and the National 4-H Contest," according to Halbach. "This was a very difficult contest to place and Daniel did a great job of ranking the cattle properly to make his reasons pretty logical. Add the right talking points to a delivery that's as good as we've had here during my tenure as coach, and the result was an unbelievable 48 Reasons average."
Virginia Tech won the contest with 2,432 points followed by second place Penn State University. Twenty two national and international university teams competed at the event.
UW-Madison Placed:
* Third High Team Overall (2,391 points)
* First in Oral Reasons
* First in Holsteins
* First in Jerseys
* Fifth in Milking Shorthorns
* Sixth in Red and Whites
* Seventh in Brown Swiss
Individual awards
Daniel Walker, Portage, communication arts, senior
* Fifth High Individual Overall (817 points)
* First in Oral Reasons
* First in Jerseys
* Seventh in Milking Shorthorns
* All-American
Lindsey Morris, Watertown, dairy science, senior
* Seventeenth High Individual Overall (791 points)
* Fifteenth in Oral Reasons
* All-American
Shelly Bohn, Watertown, dairy science and ag journalism, senior
* Twenty-third High Individual Overall (783 points)
* First in Holsteins
*Third in Oral Reasons
* All-American
Evan Schnadt, Sumner, Iowa, dairy science, senior
"Our team's history of success at the National Contest adds to the prestige of our department," said Halbach. "For some prospective students the quality of our judging program factors in to the decision making process when they are choosing a college to attend."