Ohio State Sweeps National Dairy Competitions

Dec 03, 2015

There is a new undisputed national championship team at The Ohio State University.

The Agricultural Technical Institute dairy cattle judging team swept the three major national competitions this year with its recent win at the North American International Livestock Competition in Louisville, Kentucky.

Team members won by an impressive 67-point margin in Louisville, topping the 64-point margin by which they won the World Dairy Expo in Madison, Wisconsin, on Sept. 28.

Hannah Dye, a dairy science major from Beloit, was first place overall with 710 points. Teammates Tanner Topp (dairy science, New Bremen) and Kaleb Kliner (agronomy, West Salem) were second and fourth, respectively. Rounding out the four-person team was John Paulin, a hydraulics and power equipment major from Nova.

The team's first big win of the season was at the Pennsylvania-All American Contest in Harrisburg on Sept. 14.

"I cannot remember any year where a team (at the two-year college level) participated in three judging contests and was first place in each contest and high in oral reasons," said Royce Thornton, chair of the Agricultural and Engineering Technologies Division and coordinator of Ohio State ATI's dairy programs.

In dairy cattle judging, team members evaluate and rank animals based on how close the animals are to ideal dairy conformation - a collection of traits associated with high milk production and healthy longevity. After ranking the animals, team members must give "oral reasons," justifying their placing to contest judges.

Like all Ohio State ATI dairy students, the judging team members take classes in genetics and get firsthand experience in evaluating animals for breeding.

"We select mate all of our cows and are continually working to improve our herd," said Ohio State ATI dairy herd manager Gary Crocker. "Students see how we pick bulls to try to get as sound an animal as possible. We teach them what we're striving to achieve and how we get there. Every dairy farmer wants to breed cows that will make the most money."

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Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”