Blue Mountain Community College

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Blue Mountain Community College revives Collegiate Livestock Judging Team

with a Third Place Finish in Denver.

The revived Blue Mountain Community College livestock judging team competed in their first national collegiate livestock judging contest since 1997 and walked away with honors.  The team includes agriculture students Kim Brock, Molalla; Sadie Duncan, Baker City; Haylee Harper, Pendleton;  Kiona Elkins, Hermiston; and Mackenzie Mills, Pilot Rock. The team coach is animal science instructor Nick Nelson.

This busy five member team traveled first to Chico, California to compete in a practice contest with Chico State University’s senior collegiate team.  Two weeks later they arrived in Phoenix, Arizona to compete at the Arizona National Livestock Show. 

In Phoenix the team practiced at the stock show two days prior to the contest on market steers, hogs and lambs and gave several sets of oral reasons on each class.  In the contest there were nine other junior college teams.  The BMCC team placed 5^th in sheep and 5^th  in swine.  The team placed 6^th overall behind Clarendon College, North Eastern Junior College, Linn-Benton Community College, Modesto Junior College, and Laramie County Community College.

One week later the Timberwolf team headed off to Denver for the January National Western Stock Show.  Nick Nelson set up practiced sessions all over north eastern Colorado and southern Wyoming to prepare the team for the competition.  They had a cattle workout at Tuell’s Feedlot in Yuma, a sheep workout at Laramie County Community College in Cheyenne, a mock contest at Colorado State University, and judged limousin cattle at Magness Land and Cattle in Platteville, Colorado.

Thirty junior college teams were registered for the livestock judging contest and carload contest, making it the largest Denver contest in 50 years.  The BMCC team judged 12 classes of cattle, sheep, and swine and also gave eight sets of oral reasons for a 21^st place finish in the livestock contest. Kiona Elkins was the low drop on the team, placing 61^st overall individual.  The following day the team competed in the carload contest where they judged six classes of pens of four types of cattle, with one set of questions.  The BMCC judging team placed 3^rd overall, finishing in the top 5 on their very first trip to the National Western.  Kim Brock and Haylee Harper tied for 11^th, Sadie Duncan 21^st, and Mackenzie Mills 59^th overall individuals.

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