Adventures with Madi at Blue Mountain Farms: The Best Thing About Memories is Living Them

In June this year, my team and I participated in poultry judging at Penn State. To our surprise, we won and were given the opportunity to compete nationally! With all expenses paid, we, along with my mom (our coach), Phillip Clauer, Penn State Poultry Specialist and Senior Instructor, and the rest of the Pennsylvania participants for other contests, traveled to Kentucky.

On Wednesday, we had the opportunity to visit a few Louisville Landmarks including Churchill Downs and the Louisville Slugger Factory. Wednesday night, the entire delegation for the whole National 4-H Poultry Conference met at a bowling alley for a pizza party, trinket exchange, and a few rounds of bowling.
On Thursday, we competed in the contests. We had to judge three classes of past production hens and for two of the classes, give oral reasons to a panel of two judges. We also had to judge four classes of carcasses in different sizes, interior quality of eggs, exterior quality of eggs, broken out egg quality, and poultry parts. The contest lasted for the entire day and later that evening, we attended the banquet. In production hens and reasons, I was awarded first place and my team placed third, which we did not expect at all! In the carcass class, Alyssa Neff, a member of my team, was awarded first and I was third! Our team placed first overall! The final category that was announced was the overall top scoring individual for the contest and Alyssa Neff was 19th, Addison Neff, also a team member, was 15th, and I was 1st place! As a team, we placed 2nd overall!

I cannot even begin to say how thankful I am for this opportunity. It taught me so much, I met so many people from all around this great nation, and I was able to form a close bond with my team as well! Thanks to our wonderful coaches, we were prepared to give our all and do well. I formed so many friendships and I made so many memories that will last a lifetime.