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Dairy team at nationals


FFA Dairy Judging Team: left to right, Jonah Haskins, Justin Thom, Ethan Sharrard, Carmen Kincaid.

FFA Dairy Judging Team: left to right, Jonah Haskins, Justin Thom, Ethan Sharrard, Carmen Kincaid.

SANDUSKY — Four members of the Sanilac FFA Chapter had the opportunity to represent Michigan in the National FFA Dairy Cattle Evaluation Career Development Event, Oct. 23-24, 2018 in conjunction with the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Members of the team included Ethan Sharrard and Justin Thom of Peck, Carmen Kincaid of Sandusky, and Jonah Haskins of Marlette. The team finished 27th out of 46 teams competing and received a silver rating.

Jonah Haskins and Carmen Kincaid earned individual gold awards while Ethan Sharrard and Justin Thom earned individual bronze awards. The team earned the right to represent Michigan by winning the state event which was held in July at Michigan State University during Michigan Dairy Days.

The National FFA Dairy Cattle Evaluation and Management CDE is a competitive event that tests the student’s ability to select and manage quality dairy cattle. Event components include the evaluation of six classes of dairy cattle, herd record evaluation and a dairy management team activity. To successfully evaluate classes of dairy cattle, students must learn to identify the ideal phenotype that a quality dairy cow should exhibit. Using this knowledge, they evaluate the four animals in the class and rank them from best to worst. Once they have completed their evaluation they are required to prepare a set of reasons that are delivered orally to a judge that explains their justification for their placing.

During the herd record evaluation portion of the competition, team members must use their knowledge of dairy cattle and milk production to make decisions using data from a hypothetical farm. Decisions might include identifying cows which present mastitis challenges to the herd, identify cows with reproduction challenges, and identifying cows who are management challenges due to either high or low production of milk.

This year’s team activity was focused on dairy cattle facilities. Team members were given a hypothetical scenario. In this scenario they were asked to simulate the role of a dairy consultant. Given data and information from a hypothetical farm, the team had to draft a plan that would assist the farm owner in improving their facilities. Included in the plan were considerations for her health, concern for cow comfort, adequate space, disease control and manure handling. The team was given 60 minutes to prepare their plan for facilities improvement. Following this time, the team members were required to give a 10-minute presentation to the hypothetical farm owner.

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