Carroll dairy team has sights set on Scotland
By Jennifer Archibald Staff writer

To compete in Scotland The FFA dairy judging team at Carroll Jr.-Sr. High School has been invited to compete at the Royal Highland Show in Scotland. Their third place finish at the National FFA Dairy Cattle Career Development Event at the FFA National Convention qualified them for the Royal Highland. Pictured l-r are team members Chandler Keown, Malena Zook, Sarah Griffin, and Jill Griffin. They'll be competing against others in their same age group. Photo provided

The Carroll FFA dairy team has come a long way, and the four members are anticipating going a lot farther - all the way to Edinburgh, Scotland.

In their first year together as a dairy judging team, Malena Zook, Sarah Griffin, Jill Griffin, and Chandler Keown advanced from the area contest, won the state, and captured third place in national competition. The national placing has qualified them to compete at the Royal Highland Show in Edinburgh this summer.

Top dairy cattle and livestock teams from FFA, 4-H, and collegiate contests in the U.S. will be taking part, as well as top Scottish teams. The invitation for American teams to compete came from the Scottish Association of Young Farmers.

Besides taking part in the dairy judging, the team also will be able to see farm machinery and horticultural exhibits, the Scottish foods building, and a flower show at the Royal Highland.

The trip extends beyond Scotland, to England, France, Luxembourg, and Germany. The students will stay part of the time with local farm families and likely will help with daily chores.

They will tour dairy and other farms, the Scottish Museum of Country Life, dairy facilities at the Scottish Agriculture College, and they will attend the National Dairy Show in Luxembourg.

The European tour also will include general sight seeing.

Steve and Melissa Keown are the Carroll FFA advisors, and Dale Griffin (father of team members Sarah and Jill) is the team's coach. Dale is the Ag teacher at Rossville and judges at county fairs. Melissa will accompany the students on the trip.

At the Royal Highland, dairy judging will be in four classes, Jerseys, Ayrshires, and two types of Holsteins. The students will need to give reasons in two of the classes. The contest is based on judging, reasons, demonstration, and 50 questions on stock management, for a total of 700 points.

"At National, we were just two points away from second place," Malena said.

Melissa explained that judging is very precise, and students must use the correct terminology in explaining why they placed the animals the way they did. They have only a few minutes to evaluate 15 or more traits. They look as such traits as stature, body depth, dairy form, and udder width and depth.

"These kids studied hard," Melissa said.

To prepare for earlier contests, Melissa said the team visited dairy operations in Adams County, Clinton County, and at Purdue.

She said the students did well to place at National, considering there are not currently any true dairy operations in Carroll County. She added that for two of the members, Malena and Chandler, this was their first year to be on a judging team. Malena, Chandler and Sarah are juniors, and Jill is a sophomore.

Because the team placed at National, they can't ever compete again in FFA dairy contests.

But they are looking forward to competing this summer in Scotland.

"It will be a learning experience for them," said Steve. "Different countries have different standards."

"Basic judging of the traits will be the same, but we'll have to find out what they (Scottish judges) value the most," he stated.

This will be all four students' first trip to Europe. Besides the Royal Highland Show, other highlights of the trip will include London, Eurostar train ride under the English Channel, Eiffel Tower and other sights in Paris, Rhine River cruise, and a visit to a familyowned vinyard.

The trip will be June 18- July 1. The students are raising money as a team. Melissa said $3,500-$3,700 is needed per student, not counting spending money.

The Carroll FFA Chapter is sponsoring a hog roast Feb. 1 from 5 to 6:30 p.m. in the Carroll High School cafeteria, with proceeds going to the dairy team. This is the night of Carroll's homecoming game, against Delphi. Tickets are available from all FFA members or by calling the Ag. Department at the high school.

The dairy team plans to sell frozen dinner rolls, and a portion of the proceeds from the FFA work auction will go to the team.

As another fundraising effort, the team has sent letters to out-of-county businesses related to the dairy industry.

The Keowns said any donations would be welcome. They can be sent to the Carroll Dairy team, c/o Carroll Jr.-Sr. High School, 2362 E State Road 18, Flora, IN 46929.

All money raised for the trip will be held by the Carroll Education Foundation until time to be distributed.

This is the first time Carroll FFA has had a dairy judging team go to the state and national contests, and if enough money is raised, it will be the first time for a Carroll team to compete at the Royal Highland.