SuperTalk Mississippi
News

Mississippi 4H team wins at national level

This Mississippi 4-H team brought home a win at a national livestock competition. From left are MSU Extension agent Heather Jennings; team members Rustin Anderson, Sarah Thomas Smith, Mikayla Shelton and Will Watts; and MSU Extension agent Kipp Brown. (Submitted Photo/MSU Extension Service)
The first Mississippi team ever to compete in the North American International Livestock Exposition came home with a first-place win in the evaluation division.
The four-member team was an all-star group of 4-H members made up of winners of the premier exhibitors’ competition at the Dixie National Livestock Show in February.
The national event was held in Louisville, Kentucky, with teams from 19 states. The competition took place November 13-15.

Heather Jennings, Mississippi State University Extension Service agent in Rankin County, and Jennifer Williams, Extension agent in Lincoln County, coached the team. Funding and support came from the MSU Department of Animal and Dairy Science.

“Jennifer and I are very proud of these young people,” said Jennings. “They put in a lot of time and work studying and preparing for this competition. We had never entered this competition before, so we didn’t know what to expect. Now that we have this experience, we plan to be very competitive in the future.”

The competition had both individual and team components.

 Individuals took a quiz, evaluated hay and wool, and were tested in breed, retail meat cut and equipment identification. The team portion consisted of evaluations of pork carcasses, livestock feeding, breeding, quality assurance and performance marketing.

In addition to the first-place team win in evaluation, team member Will Watts of Lincoln County came in sixth overall in individual evaluation, and McKayla Shelton of Calhoun County was 10th overall in evaluation.

Other team members were Rustin Anderson of Jones County and Sarah Thomas Smith of Sunflower County.

Stay up to date with all of Mississippi’s latest news by signing up for our free newsletter here

Copyright 2024 SuperTalk Mississippi Media. All rights reserved.

Related posts

This website uses cookies to improve your experience. We'll assume you're ok with this, but you can opt-out if you wish. Accept Read More