Alva Review-Courier -

Nineteen Woods County 4-H members, comprising two Alva 4-H teams and four Waynoka 4-H teams, competed in the NW District Livestock Judging Contest on Feb. 1 in Enid. These teams competed in the junior age group of the 4-H Division, which had a total of 28 teams and over 100 individuals participating in the contest. The Alva 4-H team placed second in the contest, an excellent showing. Team members included Colby Mackey, Tara Owen, Brady Lott and Payden Nusser. Waynoka 4-H had the fifth-place team consisting of Tayen Redgate, Lainey Seaman, Jessica Goucher and Kyler Shepard. Awards for the highest individual placing in the contest included Colby Mackey, fourth-high individual, and Tayen Redgate, fifth-high individual.

The students participating in the contest placed two swine classes, two beef classes and two sheep classes. The contestants then gave one set of reasons on each of the three species.

"I am very proud of all the 4-Hers that participated in the NW District Livestock Judging Contest," said Greg Highfill, Woods County Extension educator for ag/4-H. He added, "Of course, the FFA instructors in each community – Randy Nation of Alva and Will Anderson of Waynoka – trained and coached these 4-H teams to prepare them for the contest and they obviously did a quality job. It requires hours of practice to learn the judging skills and livestock reasons terminology to be able to attain these excellent scores."

Also participating from the Alva 4-H Club were Mackinze Mackey, 19th high individual, and Ruston Erikson. From the Waynoka 4-H Club were Kaitlyn Rich, 22nd high individual; Kaylen Gaskill; Novaly Medrano; Breya Wharton; Davin Budy; Alivia Seaman; Marlie Pitts; Kooper Rich and Kennedy Zook.