BROOKINGS, S.D. (KELO)– Livestock shows have begun in SDSU’s Animal Science Arena for the 98th Little International event taking place this weekend.
Little International is the largest two-day agricultural exposition in the country. It provides students with an opportunity to compete in judging contests, showmanship competitions and fitting events.
On Friday, showman began the morning with the preliminary fitting events in Sheep, Goats, Horse and Dairy. The finals for all these fitting events, as well as the Beef cattle fitting event, will take place during the late afternoon and evening in the arena. They will conclude Friday evening with the preliminary swine showmanship event.
Saturday’s events will include showmanship preliminary events, final showmanship events, round robin and award ceremonies.
Jacob Rausch, manager of the 98th Little International, said that things are looking a little different this year than in previous years. Due to the pandemic, the event had to be closed to the public and live-streamed instead. You can find the livestream on the SDSU Little International Facebook page.
“Everybody has been super excited to get rolling this morning,” Rausch said. “Our show starts a little bit later this morning than typical years, just because we don’t have the FFA competitions and no students coming in, but we’re ready to get rolling and I think the exhibitors are too.”
Rausch says the atmosphere has been incredible as exhibitors begin to hit the chips. He said that they went through a dry run of the event Thursday night and although a few people may be nervous, he thinks everyone is enthusiastic to move on with the show.
At 4 p.m. on Friday, the dean of the College of Ag, Food and Environmental sciences will kick off the opening ceremonies of the event.
“Little “I” is very unique, here on SDSU, because it can involve every single club on campus….We are just very proud of the diversity we have here and that if anybody wants to be included and participate they’re sure welcome to,” Rausch said.
There’s a first time for everything
This was both Catherine Bechen and Parker Aase’s first time showing their species. Bechen is participating in the novice goat division and Aase in the novice sheep.
Bechen is a junior studying Animal Science and Ag Science and Aase is a junior majoring in Precision Ag.
Both participants have had experience with Little International; Bechen through high school FFA and Aase through showing a beef heifer his freshman year.
This is also Bechen’s first year on staff. She is serving as the superintendent of the Farm Business Management FFA contest. Her duties included writing an exam to be given to the FFA students competing.
She said that showing a goat for the first time was interesting but fun.
Bechen said her favorite part of Little I this year has been being out with the other show exhibitors.
“We’ve been struggling together and, you know, we’ve been cheering each other on, so we’ve kind of been going through that together, so it’s kind of fun having people in your corner,” Bechen said.
Little International definitely gets people out there, Bechen said. It was her first time showing a goat and she gets to experience that with others and see what that aspect of the agricultural industry is all about.
Bechen is exciting to be hitting the chips Friday and showing people all the work she has put into her goat.
Aase had never really worked with sheep before this year’s event.
“It’s been a wonderful time this year and going out in the barn and making new friends and learning new skills,” Aase said.
KELOLAND News was able to check up with Aase after his sheep preliminary fitting show Friday morning.
“The prelims went really well for me this morning, made it to the second round, I believe was placed first in the novice class,” Aase said. “So, it went pretty well for me and hopefully I can keep that going for the rest of the day today and hopefully on to tomorrow.”
Aase said that Little International is a great way to bring students, not only from the Animal Science Department, but also from other departments and gives them the chance to try something new and learn from that.
Being a staff member during a pandemic
Emily Walton, junior Animal Science Pre-Vet student, began participating in Little International her freshman year, serving as the Fundraising Assistant. This year, she has switched roles and is serving as the Swine Superintendent, after discovering her passion for the swine industry.
“I’ve really enjoyed every single year,” Walton said. “Everybody plays an extremely important role.”
Walton said she has had a great experience and has made a lot of good connections and awesome people.
As swine superintendent, Walton, along with her assistants, is in charge of getting the pigs for the show, caring for them while they are at the arena and marketing them after the show. They also help the exhibitors by answering their questions, help them clip and know what is going on.
Walton said that Little International is close to a lot of agriculture student’s hearts and even some students not involved in agriculture.
“It kind of shows the importance of tradition but also it’s a really good advocate for agriculture as a whole,” Walton said.
The Link LonkMarch 27, 2021 at 05:05AM
https://ift.tt/2PdOIfh
Showman have taken to the green chips at SDSU’s 98th Little International event - KELOLAND.com
https://ift.tt/2RGyUAH
Chips
No comments:
Post a Comment