On May 21, eleven members of the Benton County Livestock Judging Team participated in the Lake Land College Livestock Judging Contest in Mattoon, Illinois. Gabe Hanson, Jill Hanson, Olivia Hanson, Noah Kaiser, Colton Kroneman, Haddie Kroneman, William Kroneman, Steiger Manson, Ava Siek and Hannah Siek all made the most of their five hour trip to compete in southern Illinois.

The young people judged three classes of beef heifers, two classes of breeding gilts, one market hog class, two classes of breeding ewes and one class of breeding does. One team judged in the questions division where they answered three sets of ten questions about the classes they had judged. The other seven were split in to two teams and gave oral reasons to defend their placings on four of the classes that they had evaluated.

When the dust settled, the Iowa teams again showed that they compete on a regional stage. In the questions division, Colton Kroneman was 6th overall in swine and Jill Hanson was 3rd overall in beef. The team of Jill Hanson, Haddie Kroneman, Colton Kroneman and Ava Siek was 2nd high in the beef division and 6th high overall. In the reasons division, Steiger Manson was high individual in swine and Gabe Hanson was 5th high in swine and 4th high in oral reasons. The team of Gabe Hanson, Alex Ludeking and Steiger Manson was 5th high overall.

Benton County Livestock Judging is a team activity run under the oversight of ISU Extension Benton County. All young people of 4-H age are welcome to participate.