Kansas City American Royal
Katelyn Fritsche, McCook FFA Reporter
The McCook FFA Senior Livestock Judging Team headed down to the American Royal as they earned the right to participate in the Judging Contest due to their success at the State FFA Livestock Judging Contest last year. Senior Samantha Yonkers, and Juniors Katelyn Fritsche, Will Miller, and Amanda Shields, went on several workouts on Livestock Judging with colleges from around the area such as NCTA, CSU, Casper (Wyoming), and Northeastern. The Coaches for the colleges helped the McCook Judgers out tremendously. The judgers headed down to Kansas City on Halloween stopping along the way at the Ag Hall of Fame located right outside of Kansas City where they went through a pristine museum of several area agriculture artifacts from several eras. That night in Kansas City after checking into the hotel Mr. Ryan Stainbrook, his judgers and family went out for dinner with the Chapter. Back at the hotel he helped the judgers mentally prepare for the next day. They woke up the next morning and headed to contest by 6:30am. That day they judged ten classes: Charolais Heifers, Market Steers 1, Market Steers 2, Market Hogs, Performance Duroc Gilts (with Performance Data), Simmental Bulls (with Performance Data), Commercial Gilts, Hampshire Breeding Ewes (with Performance Data), Market Lambs 1, and Market Lambs 2. They gave oral reasons (verbal discussion of their placing) for six classes: Market Steers 1, Market Lambs 2, Performance Duroc Gilts, Simmental Bulls, Hampshire Breeding Ewes, and Market Hogs. By the end of the day they were completely exhausted. They did very well at the competition receiving ribbons as they placed 7th overall as a team, 4th in the beef division, and Samantha Yonkers placed 10th overall individually. The contest was a once in a life time experience for these kids as they can never again compete at it for FFA or 4-H. After the results they went and had fun with Mr. Schieber and Karen and John Miller. They went to the open mall and ate at Wild Bills where they rode the mechanical bull in the restaurant with many on looking spectators, and Mr. Schieber presented them with vests that he had purchased for them due to their success at the contest. The next morning they headed home where the spent another eight hours in a cramped car with Mr. Schieber learning life lessons and singing to the classic good old stuff.
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