When Will and Rachael Sirek Milashoski arrived on campus in 2022, the Seward County Community College agriculture program served just a handful of students. Faculty turnover and program requirements tied to grant funding had resulted in low enrollment. Once a point of pride at SCCC, livestock judging had faded to a fond memory.
Fast-forward to 2024, and it’s a different story. Visitors to the ag buildings will find a buzz of energy, punctuated by the sound of goats, sheep, chickens, and one trusty donkey. But the livestock sounds are just the background for the voices of nearly 30 students enrolled in the program. You hear them debate in the classroom, call out in the arena, and joke as they load up for another livestock judging competition.
“We started with two highly-motivated students, and we grew from there,” said Will Milashoski. “One of them was Ashlynn, who we knew from her high school judging team in Arizona, and the other was a local kid who’d always been around livestock but never encountered judging as an activity. He kind of took a leap of faith.”
The instructors enrolled those two students and did the same.
“Junior college judging involves intense recruiting,” Milashoski said. “It does us no good to sit at home and have no visibility. We used competition around the nation as a point to prove to seniors who were choosing where to go as college students. My position was, ‘Hey, I’m willing to do this with two kids, imagine what I’ll do with a whole team.’”
Today, SCCC fields two teams with six sophomores and eight freshmen.
“We recruited coast to coast, border to border, and our team has members from south Texas to Idaho, California to Virginia,” Milashoski likes to say.
Livestock judging teams evaluate sheep pigs, goats, or cows.
In competition, they rank a group of four animals in order of fitness and excellence. They consider each animal’s soundness, muscle, balance, body type, eye appeal, and then compare their conclusions to those of the judges. These factors are not just superficial: how an animal moves, for example, contributes to its longevity and its suitability for large-scale production. The process is far more practical than, for instance, the dog shows popular on television.
“People who work in agriculture understand the importance of this type of decision-making,” Milashoski said. “If an animal can’t live well for seven years, you will not get back the money you invested in the purchase price and the cost of upkeep, and the possibility of breeding. At the end of the day, when you have 600 cattle and 40 are struggling to get to the pasture to get their daily nutrition, you’re not real attached to those 40 cows. You’re going to take a loss on them.”
Livestock judging is not the only element in the SCCC agriculture program, but it’s clearly a factor in drawing students to enroll. On this chilly late-fall morning, Milashoski had just completed a phone interview with a prospective student from Tennessee, and was prepping for a Zoom call with a high schooler from eastern Kansas.
“There are about 30 junior colleges in the country that do livestock judging, so we’re looking at roughly 300 kids per year,” he said.
“When I meet prospective students, I tell them the bigger programs are well-established, sure, but when you go there, you will be one of 40 kids. You can be here and be one of my 10 and I will pour every ounce of energy into helping you develop and excel.”
This kind of recruitment echoes athletic coach scouting, but the livestock judging teams are actually part of the academic arm of the college. Students enrolled in livestock judging and livestock evaluation classes have the opportunity to join the teams. Students who compete must prove eligibility tied to grades verified by the college registrar, and that eligibility is used up on an academic year basis.
“It’s not a spectator sport by any means, but it’s highly competitive,” he said. “And we actually travel more widely than any of the SCCC athletic teams.” This fall alone took the students to Austin, Minn., the World Beef Expo in Milwaukee, Wis., Fayetteville, Ark., state fairs in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Dallas, Texas, and regional shows in Hutchinson, Clarendon, Texas, and Ledey, Okla. And that was before November.
In the judging arena, access is limited, silent, and technology free.
The competitors are allowed pencils and steno pads, and expected to show up dressed nicely in boots, button-up shirts, and for more formal rounds, slacks, blazers and ties.
Competitors evaluate six or eight rounds of animals, sit down to a catered lunch, and then return in the afternoon to defend their rankings in a process called “Reasons.” It’s similar to a thesis defense in academia, timed and tightly regulated.
“We talk about this as something that develops soft skills,” Milashoski said. “You have to come to quick decisions, know your priorities, and be able to defend your conclusions.” Yet it’s also subjective. “For our kids who get frustrated, I tell them if you want to have number-based answers, go to meat judging.”
In one recent case, “my kids took (dropped) points, and I told them, hey, I don’t agree with the officials on this,” Milashoski said. “This lamb didn’t feel as good as the other one, he was fungus-scarred, his texture was off, he looked good but he was fighting for the middle, and the other coaches agreed.”
The freshman and sophomore judging teams run separately, each with its unique group flavor, depending on the individual students’ level of buy-in and enthusiasm. Milashoski describes the freshman team as “fiery,” and anticipates a second year packed with competition.
The trips can be costly, supported by scholarship money for the students themselves, a departmental travel budget, and various fundraising efforts. Local agriculture supporters have chipped in to cover airfare for a judging competition in the California Central Valley, and community members have also sponsored meal gift cards.
Livestock judging connects students and the community to a bygone era when animal production dominated the region. In that respect, Milashoski said, “our supporters have stepped up to help us grow and make this program attractive to the kids who are deciding between us and the other colleges that might have bigger teams and more resources.”
Long-range plans include an assistant coach for the program, which currently numbers 30 full-time students.
“The size we’re at now is about as large as this department has ever been, and I foresee more growth,” he said. “Especially with Liberal High School adding agriculture, I’m excited to see what we can do.”
Categories: Agriculture, Business & Personal Services Division, Enrollment, Student Success
Leave a Reply