Let’s Talk About It: My Journey In 4-H Livestock Skillathon
My livestock skillathon journey will always hold a special place in my heart. From all the knowledge I learned to the teammates I met, this is my livestock skillathon story.
First things first, if you are not familiar with the contest of Livestock Skillathon, let me give you a “brief” explanation. In the senior category there are two sections; individual and team. In the individual portion majority of the time you will have three identification stations, three judging stations, and two quizzes. There will be a breed identification, meats identification, and equipment identification station. There will also be a meats, hay, and wool judging station. Lastly, there will be a quality assurance and an industry quiz. On the team portion, my team had to do a keep/cull scenario for state. But at nationals, we had a keep/cull, quality assurance, feed ID, reproduction, meats, and marketing scenarios.
Now with that out of the way let me explain how I ended up getting the opportunity to travel to the one and only North American International Livestock Exhibition.
I started livestock skillathon in my sixth-grade year. I will admit I did not know ANYTHING. I also did not study very much. This was back when intermediates could compete at the Texas 4-H Roundup. I will say, for how young I was I definitely surprised my extension agent.
Fast forward to my freshman year. I studied a little bit harder, but if I’m being honest, still not as much as I needed to. I did not get to compete at district due to a conflict with my Area IV FFA speaking contest, but I did compete at the Texas 4-H Roundup. I ended up placing 19th that year on my own.
Next came my sophomore year. At this point Runnels County 4-H finally had a team to compete. It was two freshmen girls and myself as a sophomore. Our extension agent was anything but shy putting us to work right away. We would practice with everyone else, and then after all the younger aged groups got to leave, we stayed and practiced some more. That year I was also not able to compete at district as I had the same Area IV FFA speaking competition. The other girls on my team placed very well at their district contest.
But then came the real test, preparing for the state contest. Our extension agent told us early on that he believed we could be one of the top three teams and walk the stage, and then in future years we could advance to nationals so we would have more time to study and prepare. But little did he know we decided we wanted to go above and beyond. Nearly every Sunday leading up to the state contest we practiced. Breeds, meats, equipment, quizzes, medicine labels, speaking, teamwork, nearly every Sunday, on repeat.
So that leads us to the state contest. We arrive bright and early in the morning. Unfortunately, we could not even talk to our extension agent as he serves as the superintendent of the competition, and we wanted to keep the integrity. But let me tell you, we were all a nervous wreck. Shaking non-stop as we realized this was the real deal. I still remember how nervous and shaken up I was, I did not want to disappoint myself, my coach, or my team. Also not to mention we were the only team that went all out business professional with slacks, nice shirts, and blazers. The contest started with the tests first. After, came all the long awaited stations for the individual contest. We all made it through well and alive, though maybe not mentally. Seven rotations, each fifteen minutes, gets pretty tiring.
Then came the line-up for the team component. My team hoped we were close to the front so we could get the contest done and over with. One team was called, then the next, and another one, and what felt like ten after that. Turns out, we were basically the last team to compete. So after eating our Chick-Fil-A lunch , nervous as ever, and sitting for what felt like forever, they called our county. We went into the room with our game faces on. By the end of it we survived the speaking portion and thought we did very well.
Next we had to wait on the awards ceremony. My team and I sat next to each other, and you can probably guess, still shaking from the nerves. I can truthfully say, we were all a nervous wreck. But first let me explain something. At the Texas 4-H Roundup, they will announce the individual and team placings from 10th-4th. Third, second, and first are called out by random as they are expected to meet later on to walk the stage in front of everyone at the nightly session. So they start with individual placings. Tenth place gets called, and it is one of the girls from out team. Then they proceed all the way until they call fourth. They announce fourth place, and my teammate and I realize we still have yet to have been called. They proceed to announce the top three individuals, in no particular order, and both my teammate and I are in the top three. We are all ecstatic. Next, they go on to top ten teams. Tenth, ninth, eighth, seventh, sixth, fifth, fourth, oh wait, Runnels County is in the top three! We all look at each other with shocked faces.
Let us fast forward to the night of the awards ceremony. We all sat next to each other and feasted on the massive “charcuterie” board they set out for us. We nervously awaited the results. But finally it came to be our time. We walked up on the stage and start calling out districts and the counties they correspond with. District one gets called first, and we all give each other a shocked look. Then, District Five gets called next, and at that point all of our jaws dropped. We realized that in our first year of competing in the 4-H Livestock Skillathon we, as a team of only three, were the STATE CHAMPIONS! We were still in shock when we realized we had to move backwards for the top three individuals. Third gets called, it’s not me. Second gets called, it’s my teammate. Then it hits me, not only did I just become a State Champion for the team portion, but I just became the State Champion High Point Individual for 4-H Livestock Skillathon. I was genuinely shocked, we all were. We were so excited that we were headed to Louisville, Kentucky for NATIONALS! But then we also realized that means we had to practice twice as much from that point on, but in the end, it was worth it.
After all the fun times, we had to go back to work. Every Sunday we went back to studying the same topic, and we had to add five more. We were learning something new every week. By the end of it, we thought we were fairly good. We came together as a team and decided to do a raffle for a fundraiser. We ended up raising enough money to fully pay for our travels.
But it didn’t feel real until the week before we left. At that point we came to a realization that it was time. We got on the first airplane way to early in the morning. In little to no time we ended up in Louisville, Kentucky. The first thing we all noticed was how pretty fall was in Kentucky. Everywhere we went everyone made sure to take enough pictures that established the fact that Texas does not have a pretty fall.
Our coach made sure to put our minds on the line as the day we landed in Kentucky was also the day before contest. The first thing we did was travel to the ground of the North American International Livestock Exhibition. None of us had ever seen so many different breeds of sheep in one area. We CAN NOT forget the reactions when one of the teammates officially saw the border leicester sheep in real life for the first time.
After roaming the exhibit hall, where we saw the biggest Sullivan Supply set up, and visiting the cattle show, our extension agent had a coaches meeting. So while we waited, our meats coach took us to a local grocery store for practice. Here we saw many different cuts of meats, and some we were not familiar with being from Texas. We also saw Laura’s Lean ground beef for the very first time. This was a major breakthrough for us as we had seen the term Laura’s Lean MANY times while at our practices.
We enjoyed the day while it lasted, but the next day was competition. So that also meant out extension agent was NOT shy of making us practice for some time back at the hotel.
Now let me tell you, we thought we were nervous the morning of state contest, but that was just the beginning. We were all shaking in our skin when it came to the National contest. Once again, we were one of the only teams to wear slacks, flats, nice shirts, and blazers. We were told we had to start in the team section. After what felt like a lifetime we finally moved on to the individual portion. This is where I always beat myself up. I always think I second guess myself every single time. But needless to say, I made it through. After we completed the five hour long competition, we were greeted outside the doors by our extension agent. As good as it felt to know that we were finally done with the competition, we came to a realization. We realized that we would never walk into a livestock skillathon contest again. We also realized that we had to wait a WHOLE DAY until the awards ceremony. So, we spent the day touring horse sales, and the Churchill Downs.
So let’s fast forward to the awards ceremony. We woke up earlier than we wanted to and left to the NAILE grounds. We were served a breakfast at the awards ceremony before it started. The ceremony started with announcing the Quiz Bowl awards. Next it was livestock skillathon. The first thing they announced was individual identification awards. They slowly called each person starting from tenth. I DID NOT expect what happened next. After sitting for what felt like forever, I was announced to be the national individual champion for identification. As a team we ended up being reserve national champion for identification. My teammates got some other individual awards for other parts of the competition. We were national champions as a team for quality assurance and ended up third overall as a team. I individually was the reserve national champion of the 2023 National Livestock Skillathon contest.
Overall, livestock skillathon has taught me not only the underlying principles of teamwork and cooperation, but it taught me so much more about the livestock industry. I have been well educated in the beef and cattle industry, but now I know the simple, and not so simple, education of the swine, goat, and sheep industries. Even though I dreaded a majority of all the practices we had, I will miss them. I may never be able to compete again, but I will always try to educate others on this contest. I am forever grateful for what I have learned throughout my career in 4-H livestock skillathon.