Florida Teams Compete in Southeastern Livestock Expo Youth and Collegiate Livestock Judging Contest

On Thursday, March 7, the Southeastern Livestock Expo/SLE Rodeo hosted their annual Youth and Collegiate Livestock Judging Contest at the Garrett Coliseum in Montgomery, Ala. where several outstanding teams from Florida made their way to the Heart of Dixie to judge at one of the Southeast's top judging contests.

Florida 4-H was represented by two counties: Jackson County 4-H, sending junior and senior teams and individuals (first/left photo), and Putnam County 4-H, sending a senior team (second/right photo) to this year's contest.

Jackson County's junior team included Lila Caraway, Adly Caraway, Benjamin Roach, Nathan Ziglar, Ryleigh Yoder, Reagan Roach, Valerie Yoder and Samuel Roach. As a team, they placed first in the swine division, second in the beef division, second in the sheep and goats division and were named as the high scoring team overall in the junior division, with nine teams and 38 individuals competing.

Individually, Lila Caraway placed second in swine, fifth in sheep and goats and sixth in beef and was named as the high individual overall, Adly Caraway placed seventh in swine, tenth in sheep and goats, and fourth overall, Benjamin Roach placed second in sheep and goats and fifth overall, Nathan Ziglar placed fourth in swine, eighth in beef and tenth overall, Reagan Roach placed first in beef and tenth in swine, and Ryleigh Yoder placed ninth in swine.

Their senior team included Hayden Warden, Taylor Yoder, Whitnie Yoder, Emma Caraway, Anslie Yoder and Dylan Ziglar. As a team, they placed seventh in beef, ninth in sheep and goats, fifth in swine, sixth in reasons and as the seventh place team overall. Individually, Anslie Yoder placed tenth in reasons and Hayden Warden was the sixteenth high individual overall.

Putnam County's senior team included Dathan Guthrie, Emily Lands, Clayton Brauman and Kallie Johnson. As a team, they placed as the high scoring team for sheep and goats, second in beef, third in swine, second in reasons and were named as the reserve champion team overall for the senior division, with 19 teams and 88 individuals competing.

Individually, Dathan Guthrie was fifth in reasons, seventh in beef, seventh in swine and fourth overall, Emily Lands was fourth in sheep and goats, fifth in swine, eighth in beef, ninth in reasons and sixth overall, Clayton Brauman was fifth in sheep and goats and eighth overall, and Kallie Johnson was sixth in beef and twelfth overall.

Congratulations to each of these teams on their many accomplishments, and best of luck to them as they compete in their respective state contests later this spring.

The University of Florida Livestock Judging Team (Cody Norton, Savannah Hall, Brooke Miller, Holly Pliska, Macey Soltis and Sydeny Groom) also competed in the collegiate division at the contest and placed sixth overall.

Livestock judging is an event designed to test the evaluation and decision making skills of students through evaluating market and breeding beef cattle, swine, sheep and meat goats as well as the defense of their placings via oral reasons. For more information and complete results, visit www.judgingcard.com/Results/Events.aspx?ID=11012.

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