UW-River Falls students win top honors in livestock contest

A team of students from UW-River Falls took first place in the Holstein class of the North American International Livestock Exposition (NAILE) Invitational Dairy Judging Contest Nov. 10, in Louisville, Ky. Nineteen teams from campuses across the country participated in the contest.

The first place UWRF team included Tim Borgardt of Oshkosh, Wis., Joshua Butler of Watertown, Wis.,  Matt Linehan of River Falls, and Maria Pieper of New Prague, Minn. Pieper, Butler and Borgardt are dairy science majors, and Linehan is studying agricultural business.

Holsteins were only one class in the dairy judging competition; other classes included Ayrshire, Brown Swiss, Guernsey and Jersey cattle. There were 48 competitors in the individual competitions where Linehan took fourth in the Holstein contest; Pieper took sixth place in the Guernsey contest, and Butler placed 10th in the Brown Swiss competition. The team placed ninth in the Overall Competition.

The team was coached by UWRF dairy science Professor Steve Kelm.

“The team was excited to do well at the contest,” Kelm said. “They were very consistent with placing throughout the contest and, in fact, all four members had identical placings for the Holstein classes. The team is already talking about spring practices to continue to improve for next year’s contests.”

NAILE is the world’s largest all-breed, purebred livestock exposition with 10 different species of livestock in the exposition.  This was the 40th annual NAILE. The expo runs for two weeks and draws 200,000 visitors and exhibitors.