JUDGING CONTEST DAY !!!!!!
The last full day of Scotland was a day filled with smiles, laughs, and a lot good memories. The day started bright and early for us as today was the competition day! So we headed for day two of the Royal Highlands Show, which just as amazing as the our first day. The competition was quite different than the way we do judge at home. Classes were only 5 MINUTES!!! Whether they were reasons or not. Also, they don't use the same numbering or identification system of 1234, they use ABXY,which was very different and a little difficult when giving reasons to say " I placed this class XBYA ... " Also the cows were not necessarily lead in ABXY so it a minute to figure out what order the cows were in. Giving reasons was pretty similar to US reasons, but the atmosphere was much more relaxed and everyone was sitting on the lawn chatting after the classes were over. There was some confusion in the beginning as to how many reasons we were going to give at a time because we were told that we were going to give both sets back to back. We came to find out that it was one at a time. In Scotland, they wear white lab coats when judging and we thought we looked pretty cool and smart. The time constraints made us a little stressed. It was not always clearly announced when we were supposed to change rings which made us have less time in the next class. Although, it was different than we are used to we all managed to adapt and learned to "speed" judge.
After the judging contest, we went over and saw the parade of champions, there we saw the impressive lineup of animals, including, beef: Angus, Charolais, British blues, British Blondes, and much more. The dairy lineup included, Holstein, Jersey, Ayrshire, and Milking Shorthorns. Shortly after the parade show jumping fences were set for the international contest of Show Jumping. This was very interesting and we even captured some cool action shots of the horses jumping. Next came the Awards dinner, the meal included a choice between venison or fish and chips, and to top it off for dessert we had delicious strawberries with cream and tarts.
The Results:
( We were divided into judging pairs for the contest Morgan and Ariel were a team and Chelsea and Emily were a team)
*1st place 4-H team
*2nd place team overall
*Ariel and Morgan were 3rd pair overall
*Chelsea and Emily were the 6th as a pair overall.
*Morgan was high reasons individual
*2nd place reasons team
*Morgan and Ariel were 1st place reasons pair
We are very happy with the new experience and hope to cherish the Royal Highlands in our memories for a long time.
~The Team~
PS lady readers of the blog:
the men of Scotland are certainly not lacking in the looks department. They always have uniquely wonderful hair and wear IMPECCABLE jeans of which make the tushies look wonderful.
Also Emily pants were doodled upon unintentionally by a variety of Scottish male judgers, and Morgan got a kiss on the cheek by another Scottish man during the awards that was SUPER awkward because apparently its custom and she had already started to walk away.
Fans of Chelsea please inquire about her accident today (the one involving the bathroom and her pants!) But no bodily functions were involved :)
Saturday, June 26, 2010
Friday, June 25, 2010
Hello blog readers :)
Scotland is awesome! Today we started out by doing a bus tour of Edinburgh which is the Capitol city of Scotland. Although it may not be as large as Glasgow it certainly does not lack in character. We were all incredibly impressed by the Edinburgh Castle and the architecture in general. There were tons of cute little shops and LOTS of kilts! Like expensive 200 pounds worth of kilts!
If we haven't already mentioned it the landscape of Scotland is beautiful- LOTS of hills and fields. In fact, Edinburgh is surrounded by these great hills and we were lucky enough to drive to the top of one and see the overlook- IT WAS AMAZING! And major kudos to Margot and her wonderful guide abilities, and humorous jokes.
So next we hit up the Royal Highland Show where they show in outdoor grass show rings with white fences. The show is huge and we wish we had even more days so we could experience each part. So we are food consuming girls, and thus we hit up the food area, and samples were the apples of our eye! I immediately found our initial sample, and by the end of our food excursion we had tried every sample possible, and boy were we stuffed! We tasted everything from strawberries to shortbread cookies, fudge, meats, ice cream, cheeses, jams and chips. We didn't even purchase a legitimate lunch and walked the entire length of the building. And we even had full-cream Jersey milk out of a plastic shot glass! John may have been bashing on Jersey's yesterday, but somebody in Scotland puts them to wonderful use :).
So back to the cow part, we were really impressed by the Young Farmers program that Scotland has, and they seem to be very involved and fun. They had a large booth set up and it was quite cool. Outside they had a Wii sheep shearing game that was led by an enjoyable young red-headed fellow. They also had a bike racing contest (on the kind you ride in the gym), all in hopes to raise money to promote agriculture education in Africa. Inside they had a variety of booths that Young Farmers created, much like those that 4-H clubs create in contests. They had AMAZINGLY decorated cakes in an African Safari theme- asks to see pictures because they were way cool.
We ended up being led around by two gents named Alexander and Graham. Alexander won the Young Stockman Contest last year and showed us all the livestock and dairy and explained how they evaluate each. VERY DIFFERENT they are when it come to beef cattle, but they really do judge Dairy in a similar fashion, with the exception that they prefer them to be more moderate framed, and are not as incredibly into the 'dairy' look (don't get us wrong they are still angular and feminine). They only show a few dairy breeds and they are Holsteins, Ayrshires,and Jerseys.
We have an early day tomorrow with the contest and will update you sometime tomorrow night with the results. Another long, but successful day, we are hungry for more!
<3 The Team <3
Scotland is awesome! Today we started out by doing a bus tour of Edinburgh which is the Capitol city of Scotland. Although it may not be as large as Glasgow it certainly does not lack in character. We were all incredibly impressed by the Edinburgh Castle and the architecture in general. There were tons of cute little shops and LOTS of kilts! Like expensive 200 pounds worth of kilts!
If we haven't already mentioned it the landscape of Scotland is beautiful- LOTS of hills and fields. In fact, Edinburgh is surrounded by these great hills and we were lucky enough to drive to the top of one and see the overlook- IT WAS AMAZING! And major kudos to Margot and her wonderful guide abilities, and humorous jokes.
So next we hit up the Royal Highland Show where they show in outdoor grass show rings with white fences. The show is huge and we wish we had even more days so we could experience each part. So we are food consuming girls, and thus we hit up the food area, and samples were the apples of our eye! I immediately found our initial sample, and by the end of our food excursion we had tried every sample possible, and boy were we stuffed! We tasted everything from strawberries to shortbread cookies, fudge, meats, ice cream, cheeses, jams and chips. We didn't even purchase a legitimate lunch and walked the entire length of the building. And we even had full-cream Jersey milk out of a plastic shot glass! John may have been bashing on Jersey's yesterday, but somebody in Scotland puts them to wonderful use :).
So back to the cow part, we were really impressed by the Young Farmers program that Scotland has, and they seem to be very involved and fun. They had a large booth set up and it was quite cool. Outside they had a Wii sheep shearing game that was led by an enjoyable young red-headed fellow. They also had a bike racing contest (on the kind you ride in the gym), all in hopes to raise money to promote agriculture education in Africa. Inside they had a variety of booths that Young Farmers created, much like those that 4-H clubs create in contests. They had AMAZINGLY decorated cakes in an African Safari theme- asks to see pictures because they were way cool.
We ended up being led around by two gents named Alexander and Graham. Alexander won the Young Stockman Contest last year and showed us all the livestock and dairy and explained how they evaluate each. VERY DIFFERENT they are when it come to beef cattle, but they really do judge Dairy in a similar fashion, with the exception that they prefer them to be more moderate framed, and are not as incredibly into the 'dairy' look (don't get us wrong they are still angular and feminine). They only show a few dairy breeds and they are Holsteins, Ayrshires,and Jerseys.
We have an early day tomorrow with the contest and will update you sometime tomorrow night with the results. Another long, but successful day, we are hungry for more!
<3 The Team <3
Thursday, June 24, 2010
our first adventure in Scotland
Day One: Complete.
Immediately following the flight we found ourselves on the tour bus ready to start. While some of us could barely keep our eyes open, we saw rolling green hills and tons of pastures with animals grazing. Our first stop was at the National Museum of Rural Life, where we saw a scottish "man trap" and soon ventured up to the preserved farmhouse. On film we captured a ridiculously photogenic Highlander cow and soon saw the owner herding his sheep in before a rain storm. This sight was impressive, noticing not only the herder's specific and alternating calls, but his sheep dog's aggressive and experienced training. Morgan also could not help but wonder why the sheep's tails were not docked.
Our next stop was at the Scottish Agriculture College, where we were greeted by the manager of dairy operations at the college, a pleasant Mr. John. John took us for a tour of some of his pasture lots, barns, and milking parlor. In Scotland, cows primarily graze on rye grass, unlike the Marylandish alfalfa and clover. We learned from John that cows are turned out when the length of the grass is approximately the height of a beer can, and they are switched to another lot when the grass is as tall as a golf ball. The average herd size is around 200, because it is the maximum number put out on pasture; even the number of cows spending the majority of time out on pasture alone, astounded us yanks. John informed us that because Scots are not good record keepers, they tend to view management and reproductive practices from other countries, like the United States, New Zealand, and Germany. (Never trust the records of an Italian). On another interesting note, we found the identification system to be much more strict, since the outbreak of BSE.
Down in the barns we were showed their grain supplement, a "PMR", pelletized distillers grain, pelletized beet pulp, and soy beans. Then we came across a calf pen, where John showed us his new automatic calf-feeder, which can be programmed to ration out milk, knew which calf was drinking and how much, and could slowly wean the calves by distributing less milk. There were about eight calves on just one machine, and the calves were in excellent health and condition. We learned new vocabulary when venturing into the "cubicles", or what we refer to as free stalls. Even the barn alleys are known as "passageways" in Scotland. The milking parlor was a double twelve herringbone, and parlors are the most type of milking facility in the UK, where most cows are milked twice a day (three if your lucky).
~The Team
Immediately following the flight we found ourselves on the tour bus ready to start. While some of us could barely keep our eyes open, we saw rolling green hills and tons of pastures with animals grazing. Our first stop was at the National Museum of Rural Life, where we saw a scottish "man trap" and soon ventured up to the preserved farmhouse. On film we captured a ridiculously photogenic Highlander cow and soon saw the owner herding his sheep in before a rain storm. This sight was impressive, noticing not only the herder's specific and alternating calls, but his sheep dog's aggressive and experienced training. Morgan also could not help but wonder why the sheep's tails were not docked.
Our next stop was at the Scottish Agriculture College, where we were greeted by the manager of dairy operations at the college, a pleasant Mr. John. John took us for a tour of some of his pasture lots, barns, and milking parlor. In Scotland, cows primarily graze on rye grass, unlike the Marylandish alfalfa and clover. We learned from John that cows are turned out when the length of the grass is approximately the height of a beer can, and they are switched to another lot when the grass is as tall as a golf ball. The average herd size is around 200, because it is the maximum number put out on pasture; even the number of cows spending the majority of time out on pasture alone, astounded us yanks. John informed us that because Scots are not good record keepers, they tend to view management and reproductive practices from other countries, like the United States, New Zealand, and Germany. (Never trust the records of an Italian). On another interesting note, we found the identification system to be much more strict, since the outbreak of BSE.
Down in the barns we were showed their grain supplement, a "PMR", pelletized distillers grain, pelletized beet pulp, and soy beans. Then we came across a calf pen, where John showed us his new automatic calf-feeder, which can be programmed to ration out milk, knew which calf was drinking and how much, and could slowly wean the calves by distributing less milk. There were about eight calves on just one machine, and the calves were in excellent health and condition. We learned new vocabulary when venturing into the "cubicles", or what we refer to as free stalls. Even the barn alleys are known as "passageways" in Scotland. The milking parlor was a double twelve herringbone, and parlors are the most type of milking facility in the UK, where most cows are milked twice a day (three if your lucky).
~The Team
We landed !!!!
Our adventure began with a lovely 45 minute wait on the excessively hot runway. Although Emily, Chelsea, and I sat together Morgan sat by herself and embarked on her journey by making new friends right away. She sat between a dear Alabamian woman and a Scots man. The Scottish man turned out to be a very interesting man. On the plane we watched Dear John and tried to sleep to no avail. Chelsea also had the opportunity of running into someone in the bathroom due to a faulty vacancy sign. We just arrived at the Glasgow airport and thankfully all our luggage arrived with us and we successfully passed through customs. US currency is worth about half the value of sterling. We will be leaving with the tour bus in a few moments. We are all very excited to venture out into Edinburgh today!!
The Maryland Dairy Judging Team
The Maryland Dairy Judging Team
Friday, June 18, 2010
So close!
Just purchased our tickets to the Lion King! There is a great little video on the following website to give you a taste of the performance.
http://www2.disney.co.uk/MusicalTheatre/TheLionKing/home/index.jsp
We also have organized our travel arrangements to the airport. Looks like we really are leaving in five days!
~Kiera
http://www2.disney.co.uk/MusicalTheatre/TheLionKing/home/index.jsp
We also have organized our travel arrangements to the airport. Looks like we really are leaving in five days!
~Kiera
Friday, June 11, 2010
Luxembourg Host Families
The Luxembourg Young Farmer assignments have arrived!
Emily Gill will be staying with Marc Scheer-Ewen
Chelsea Davis will be staying with Arnaud Bosseler
Morgan Meisenheimer will be staying with Jean-Paul Frish-Kuffer
Ariel Taxdal will be staying with Aart Versteegh
On Thursday July 1st, the 4-Hers will be meeting their hosts for the next few days. They will be living on the farms until Sunday July 4th. This is a day longer than it has been in the past due to the impact these visits make on both the Young Farmers and the trip participants. It is routinely ranked as the highlight of the two week trip.
~Kiera
Emily Gill will be staying with Marc Scheer-Ewen
Chelsea Davis will be staying with Arnaud Bosseler
Morgan Meisenheimer will be staying with Jean-Paul Frish-Kuffer
Ariel Taxdal will be staying with Aart Versteegh
On Thursday July 1st, the 4-Hers will be meeting their hosts for the next few days. They will be living on the farms until Sunday July 4th. This is a day longer than it has been in the past due to the impact these visits make on both the Young Farmers and the trip participants. It is routinely ranked as the highlight of the two week trip.
~Kiera
Wednesday, June 9, 2010
Two weeks to the day!
We have all had our orientation meeting and have completed our fundraising goals. First and foremost, a huge thank you to all who have helped us get to this point. I know that the team is extremely honored to have been able to bring ANOTHER National Title back to Maryland and continue an amazing tradition. For those of you who do not know, this year's team members are:
Ariel Taxdal of Harford County
Chelsea Davis of Cecil County
Emily Gill of Harford County
Morgan Meisenheimer of Howard County
Loretta Wright of Carroll County coached this great group
The travel plans include visiting Scotland, England, France, Luxembourg and Germany. We will have the opportunity to judge cattle in multiple countries, see a play in London, take a cruise down the Rhine River and so much more. The ladies have even been invited to lead cattle in 1st Annual International Sale hosted by the Luxembourg Herd Book Association! So much more to be shared with you in the days and weeks to come. Thank you once again for your support as this trip would not have been possible otherwise.
~Kiera
Ariel Taxdal of Harford County
Chelsea Davis of Cecil County
Emily Gill of Harford County
Morgan Meisenheimer of Howard County
Loretta Wright of Carroll County coached this great group
The travel plans include visiting Scotland, England, France, Luxembourg and Germany. We will have the opportunity to judge cattle in multiple countries, see a play in London, take a cruise down the Rhine River and so much more. The ladies have even been invited to lead cattle in 1st Annual International Sale hosted by the Luxembourg Herd Book Association! So much more to be shared with you in the days and weeks to come. Thank you once again for your support as this trip would not have been possible otherwise.
~Kiera
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