Local livestock judging team to compete at national competition

A local livestock judging team will compete at a national competition in January.

The team of Tyler Shaw of Kimball, Rowdy Keller and Clay Keller, formerly of Kimball, and Payton Flower of Scottsbluff, won district by a landslide and took second place in the Nebraska 4-H competition held in July. Additionally, they won different species contests and they placed sixth, ninth, 10th and 15th individually at the competition.

The win qualified the team for the Ak-Sar-Ben contest last weekend and the team performed well, according to Tessa Shaw, a 2013 KHS graduate who coaches the team.

“We had third high beef individual. We were at a slight disadvantage because you can run four kids and take the best three scores, but we only had three, so we had to take all three scores,” she said. “Tyler (Shaw) was (ranked) around 40 in each category and Rowdy (Keller) was closer to 100 in each. As a team, we were 17th in beef, 18th in sheep and goats, 20th in swine and 18th in reasons. Overall, we were 18th. This was good practice before the Western National Roundup.”

In addition to that most recent competition, the team qualified for a spot at one of three national contests. Because the team placed second, they got the second choice of which national contest they wanted to attend out of The American Royal in Kansas City, Mo., The National 4-H judging competition in Louisville, Ky., or The Western National Roundup in Denver.

Each state could be represented by only one team at each of these three contests.

“We are going to the Western Roundup because we had scheduling conflict with Kansas City and the other team chose Louisville,” Tessa said. “So we have been raising money for the two judging contests we are going to.”

The Western Roundup will be held in January. Expenses for the team will include registration fees as well as travel and may include airfare for two team members - Rowdy Keller a 2015 KHS graduate, who is attending college in Boise, Idaho, and Clay Keller, who recently moved with his family from Kimball to Oregon.

“They are still going to compete with us for their judging year,” Tessa said.