One dozen Orange 4-H members recently competed in the Virginia Tech Block & Bridle Club's youth contests March 18-19, 2016.
On Friday, the youth completed the Stockman's contest, which involved a quiz, identification of ten each of livestock breeds, equipment, feeds, and retail cuts of meat. It also included judging hay, meats, beef cattle, sheep, and hogs.
In the junior division (ages 9-13), the following youth earned awards out of 254 individuals. Sadie Wentz placed 8th in judging and questions and was 19th overall. Diesle Gilbert ranked 13th in judging and questions and Abbie Gill was 24th in judging and questions.
The junior team of Brice Norford, Gini Bryington, Sadie Wentz, and Case Norford placed 19th in quiz and ID, 6th in judging and questions, and 11th overall. The team of Salaar Ali, Abbie Gill, Connor Dodson, and Diesle Gilbert placed 7th in judging and questions and 20th overall. There were 69 teams in the junior division.
In the senior age division (14-18), Blake Hopkins placed 21st in quiz and ID, 3rd in judging and questions, and 8th overall. Garrett Hopkins placed 5th in judging and questions. There were 273 individuals in the contest. The senior team of Blake, Garrett, Skyler Hitt and Roxanne Akers placed 19th in quiz and ID, 2nd in judging and questions, and 13th overall out of 68 teams.
On Saturday, Orange youth competed in the livestock judging contest where they evaluated live classes of animals and some youth gave oral reasons.
In the junior reasons division of 76 contestants, Abbie Gill was 14th in cattle, 24th in sheep, and placed 21st overall. Brice Norford was 9th in swine, 17th in reasons, and 16th overall. Gini Bryington placed 7th in sheep, 17th in questions, and 22nd in reasons.
The team of Abbie, Gini, Brice, and Sadie Wentz placed 7th in cattle, 6th in swine, 5th in sheep, 6th in reasons, 6th in questions, and 6th overall (only one point behind the fifth place team). There were 14 teams in the division.
In the junior non-reasons division, Salaar Ali placed 23rd in cattle, 12th in swine, 5th in sheep, 9th in questions, and 4th overall. There were 182 youth in this division. The team of Salaar, Diesle Gilbert, Case Norford, and Connor Dodson placed 7th in cattle, 17th in swine, 6th in sheep, 8th in questions, and 9th overall. This was out of 40 teams.
In the senior non-reasons division, Garrett Hopkins placed 18th in cattle, tied for first in swine, and placed 7th overall. Roxanne Akers was 12th in swine, 17th in questions, and 15th overall. There were 201 senior non-reasons individuals.
The senior team of Garrett Hopkins, Roxanne Akers, and Skylar Hitt placed 6th in cattle, 2nd in swine, 21st in sheep, 14th in questions, and 6th overall out of 41 teams.
Congratulations to all of our contestants! You did a great job with minimal coaching and preparation for this contest.
