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The Murray County Junior Team: (from left to right) Nolan Verlinde, Tyler Reith, Royalle Siedschlag, and Sophia Lee -
The Murray County Beginner Team: (from left to right) Garret Reith, BR Heronimus, Deacon Pieske. -
The Pipestone Sr Team - White (left to right) Breelee Berkenpas, Riley Folkerts, Cole Reese, Will DeBates.
The Southwest Regional Livestock Judging Contest was held on June 28th, 2023, in Slayton. Murray County 4-H hosted 64 youth from the surrounding counties including, Murray, Jackson, Lincoln, Brown, Winona, Martin, Pope, and Pipestone County.
Each participant was able to test their judging skills on classes of beef cattle, sheep, meat goats, and pigs. The participants took notes and judged ten different classes. They also had to answer questions and give oral reasons on various classes.
The contest had three different divisions: Beginner, Junior, and Senior. Here are results: In the beginner division, the top five individuals were BR Heronumis, Riley Einck, Britta Schmidt, Deacon Pieske and Garret Reith.
The first-place beginner team was Murray County (Garret Reith, BR Heronimus, Deacon Pieske).
In the junior division, the top five individuals were Kate Schmidt, Mason Fruechte, Royalle Siedschlag, Noah Gravenhoff and Lane Fruechte. The first-place junior team was Murray County (Nolan Verlinde, Tyler Reith, Sophia Lee, and Royalle Siedschag).
In the senior division, the five top individuals were Will DeBates, Riley Folkerts, Cole Reese, Cade Tewes, and Noah Thompson.
The first-place senior team was Pipestone County (Will DeBates, Cole Reese, Riley Folkerts, Breelee Berkenpas).
Murray County 4-H would like to sincerely thank all that helped contribute to making this contest a success, and our largest event yet. A big thank you to the contest officials: JT Weber, Ed Schmidt, Zach Post, Mitch Bobendrier, Jim Nesseth, and Kirby Hettver. We would also like to thank the Murray County families that brought animals to be judged during the contest. Thank you to the Amy and Joel Kruse Family, Kelly Nelson, Beck Farms, Dale and Ryan Vos, Linda Carter Family, Jason Larson Family, Phil Kramer Family, and Todd Kramer. We appreciate the high quality livestock and your support to help our local 4-H members learn about livestock judging! Lastly, Murray County 4-H would like to extend a special thank you to Compeer Financial, Monogram Meat Snacks, Murray County Cattlemen’s Association, KDL insurance and Midwest Livestock Service for sponsoring meals and the financial support of this program. Thank you to Ryan Verlinde and Jason Lar-son for grilling burgers for this event on behalf of the of the Murray County Cattlemen’s Association.
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