Livestock Judging

Last week was a very busy week!  It began Monday with a practice at the Beef unit at NCSU for the State 4H Livestock judging contest coming up on Tuesday.  I had a good practice and felt ready for the contest.  After practice I traveled with the Johnston county livestock judging team to tour the Vet School at NCSU.  It was AMAZING!  We are very fortunate to have such a great facility right here in North Carolina.

Tuesday was the contest- This is the first time in 3 years I have been able to participate.  I was a little nervous, but excited to get to compete.  The contest consisted of 4 classes of cattle, 2 pigs, 2 sheep and 2 goats.  Senior competitors gave 3 sets of reasons.  I did pretty well, placing 7th in reasons and 5th in swine.  I placed in the top 15 seniors at the contest.  As a result, I will have an opportunity to work out for the State 4H livestock judging team.  I am  excited!

Livestock judging is a great addition to my livestock showing.  Being able to select superior animals will always help you perform better in the show ring.

Here is the link to the Livestock judging contest photos from Facebook   https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.395956940525793.1073741830.191921984262624&type=1

Pigs

I have been showing pigs for 5 years and really enjoyed it.  This year with the help of my dad, we decided to buy some gilts and try to raise our own show pigs.  We purchased 2 gilts at the NC State Fair and another from the Wilson County Show and Sale.  The girls we purchased at the fair, farrowed in March and April.  I sold 3 of the pigs and kept 2 for myself to show at the State Fair.  We had hoped for more pigs, but we had complications farrowing our second gilt.  We have bred again for local area Show and Sales coming up this spring. When it came around for heat checks to make sure they all were pregnant I saw that one had aborted and was on a odd heat cycle. As a result of this, we were forced to breed her to the herd boar. She will farrow around the end of October while the other will farrow at the beginning. We will try and get pictures of the girls up by the middle of the week.

Montana

Sorry I am slow at getting my blog started.  I was in MONTANA last week!  I was fortunate enough to  attend the 2013 National Junior Red Angus Round up in Montana.  I traveled with 10 other North Carolinians to the event.   This was my first time flying and it was pretty good! I learned a lot about Red Angus cattle and was able to meet many new people and see the beautiful state of Montana.  I will upload pictures soon.  I am interested in both cattle and pigs, so I will be updating you on my participation in both areas.