Junior breed groups inspire youth

Our average reader now milks 161 cows, up nearly 25 percent from a decade ago. Despite growing herd sizes, it takes the same time-tested recipe to inspire a young person to get excited and pursue a career in the dairy industry. Just like generations before, the recipe includes an encouraging spark to ignite a young person's curiosity . . . be it a project calf, dairy bowl contest, a trip, or other contest. Providing the spark for all these events is the dedicated dairy leader. Those dedicated leaders were out in full force encouraging the next dairy generation at the annual Wisconsin Junior Holstein Convention held in Middleton, Wis.

From January 2 to 4, 340 juniors and 153 adults converged for a weekend packed with dairy skill competitions. In all, 29 Junior and 25 Senior four-person dairy bowl teams representing 216 juniors tested their dairy knowledge as some 50 volunteers partnered to put on the competitions. Youngsters had a variety of reasons to compete, ranging from spending time with like-minded dairy friends, bolstering their dairy IQ, and ultimately competing for the right to represent their state at the upcoming National Holstein Convention. In addition to the dairy bowl competition, 62 youth competed in the Dairy Jeopardy contest modeled after the popular TV version. Others competed in speaking, photography, advertising, and a variety of record-book contests. Juniors also were able to attend cattle photography (shown above) and advertising workshops (shown below) lead by personnel from Agri-Graphics and the Cattle Connection.

The capstone for the weekend activities took place Saturday night as some 32 Green County hosts led by Lisa Behnke and Trish Hoesley put the finishing touches on the banquet for over 425 Holstein enthusiasts. The evening celebrated all that was good about our industry. Young people were honored for outstanding project work. There was $10,000 in scholarships awarded to support future studies. And adult leaders drew internal satisfaction as they witnessed the countless smiles from young people who are blossoming into future dairy leaders.

To all those who inspire our next generation, thank you; keep up the great work.