Broncos second in national livestock contest

RITZVILLE- Lind-Ritzville FFA team members Taylor Galbreath, Reagan Snider, Jay Harder, Lane Tellefson and Alyssa Williams took second place in the NILE Virtual Livestock Judging Contest on Oct. 8.

The digital competition was based in Billings, Mont.

Williams won the High Individual Overall, earning 439 points out of a possible 500.

Williams is an eighth-grader attending Lind-Ritzville Middle School.

The students judged/placed seven classes of cattle, swine, sheep and goats from live-streamed videos; and delivered three sets of oral reasons via digital breakout rooms.

"The contest had teams competing from across the nation; from Washington to Virginia and from Montana to Texas," local chapter FFA adviser Andy Williams said.

Galbreath came in sixth, Snider finished 26th, and Harder 28th out of 105 individuals.

Galbreath and Snider are sophomores, and Harder is a senior at Lind-Ritzville High School.

"The team was extremely excited to be able to participate in the event, and is excited to continue their growth in this Career Development Event as they work towards the State contest later this spring," Williams said.

This is Williams 16th year as FFA Adviser.

He said the team did not compete last year due to COVID-19 quarantine orders shutting down schools in March.

"They competed two years ago as a very young team," Williams said. "So, this was a very good stepping stone."

In a typical year, the students would not have been able to travel to Montana to compete, Williams said. But with school activities being virtual this year, they were able to sign up and participate.

"It was really nice to get the students together for this event," Williams said, adding it was only possible because of the School Board's recent decision to allow pupils back on campus.

"Hopefully, we'll be able to compete in more events as the year progresses," Williams said.

Williams said while this was not the National FFA event that one team from each state earns the privilege to compete in, but a contest anyone could compete in, it was still a "very big" livestock show and exhibition that took place over four days in Montana.

Any student who is an FFA member can participate in livestock judging events, regardless of whether or not they have experience showing livestock themselves.

Williams said while he did not expect too many of the students to make a living with livestock, the skills learned could benefit any future career.

"For me, livestock judging is about learning how to make a decision," Williams said.

"They have to learn a set of priorities, they have to be able to look at something and apply their priorities to make a decision, and then be confident enough in that decision to defend it; using their oral reasons to say how and why they did what they did. We're using livestock evaluation as a tool for some solid life skills."

Williams said he was particularly pleased with how his students did in the oral reasoning portion of this event.

"The oral reasons are something the kids don't love. They struggle with it, and and they have to work to get better, but I was really pleased with how the kids did with this. Especially because it was via Zoom."

The LaCrosse Junior FFA program took eighth place as a team. Ellie Pearson placed 8th as an individual, with a score of 392 out of 500.LaCrosse FFA advisor could not be reached for comment to end of story.