57th Annual Event Is Largest East of the Mississippi
While the threat of inclement weather resulted in fewer participants, the Wilmington College Aggies gave nearly 600 high school students an early season opportunity to hone their skills at agronomy and judging sheep, goats, equine and beef and dairy cattle March 4 at their 57th annual Livestock Judging Contest.
The event has attracted more than 1,000 high school students from Ohio, Kentucky and Indiana in recent years. With heavy snowfalls in the forecast, some 543 students from 40 schools made the trek to Wilmington’s Roberts Arena.
It also attracted Ohio Ag Net Broadcasting, which aired its morning report live from the competition. Veteran farm broadcaster Dale Minyo interviewed several of the Aggies, including president Julianne Simon.
Simon said the Livestock Judging Contest has not only endured, but has thrived, for 57 years because of the “high quality experience” provided to the participants.
“A lot of other competitions specialize in dairy or another single type of livestock, while Wilmington has multiple competitions featuring different livestock and agronomy going on concurrently,” said the senior agri-business major.
“High school students get to judge high quality livestock, which gives them an excellent judging experience before upcoming competitions — they have a chance to grow and develop their skills,” Simon added.
Billed as the largest competition of its kind east of the Mississippi, WC’s Livestock Judging Contest is one of the largest such attractions in the country and typically among the first competitions of the year.
The contest represents real life application and a hands-on learning experience for both the high school students and WC’s agriculture students that stage the event.
“The competition also provides Wilmington’s ag students with an opportunity for leadership development and getting out of their comfort zones,” Simon added, noting the student leaders work directly with local persons asked to serve as judges and provide “high class livestock.”
Harold Thirey, assistant professor of agriculture, said bringing hundreds of high school students to Wilmington is a result of building credibility over the years and becoming recognized for staging a high quality event.
“The Livestock Judging Contest is well known by high school teachers, advisers and students involved in 4-H, vocational agriculture and Future Farmers of America,” he said.
Thirey said the competition represents one of the distinct components of Wilmington’s agriculture program, which was established in 1948 and has become WC’s largest academic offering.
“Where else can you find as many as 1,000 students having a good time all in one place,” he said. “It’s a great thing seeing them doing something that is constructive, educational and fun.”
Also, most of WC’s more than 250 agriculture majors were involved in some facet of the event.
The WC Aggies, with help from the Collegiate 4-H Club, host the annual competition as a community service in which they share their animal judging expertise in an event in which high school students seek to perfect their skills for upcoming livestock judging contests sponsored at their county and state fairs, and by Future Farmers of America organizations.
“Our College students get to work with some high quality animals and interact with sponsors (which might have some job networking applications), but the greatest satisfaction for the Aggies is simply putting on such a successful event for high school students,” Thirey said.
Wilmington College is one of only two institutions in Ohio to offer a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture degree. It features concentrations in agricultural business, agronomy, animal science, equine studies (minor) and agricultural education.
Last year, the College started a sustainability minor that features a foundation of agriculture courses complemented with others from across the curriculum.
