Discerning Students . . .

Penn State's football team is not the only university squad that kicks butt on a national level. The poultry judging, dairy cattle judging and horse judging teams all turned in impressive performances recently on big stages.

Yeah it's true, your mom said never to be judgmental. But when it comes to animals, it's okay to discriminate. And nowhere are students better at judging animals than in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences.

The Penn State Poultry Judging Team captured first place in the National Collegiate Poultry Judging Contest held by the Center of Excellence for Poultry Science at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville, Ark. The team was comprised of Gina Lehman of Mechanicsburg, Paul Hostetter of Holtwood, Jeremy Ranck of Christiana and Mike Cressman of Telford.

The two-day contest was an opportunity for students to demonstrate their knowledge of genetic traits that influence egg and meat production and their mastery of U.S. Department of Agriculture rules and regulations governing the grading and quality of eggs and poultry meat. Penn State beat out nine other schools for the national title.

The win didn't come easily, according to Lehman. "Competition would last somewhere between two and a half to three hours a day," she says. "We had to judge everything from broilers to turkey carcasses to the quality of eggs. We had a poultry selection and evaluation class that started in the spring. We participated in a competition in Louisiana in the spring and we continued the class through the fall. In addition, we practiced outside the classroom about two hours a week during the fall."

The Penn State Dairy Cattle Judging Team, comprised of Rachel Bachman of Ulysses, Jennifer Bechtel of Martinsburg, Kevin Caldwell of State College and Joel Krall of Lebanon, recently placed fourth overall at the National Intercollegiate Contest in Madison, Wisc., competing against 24 other teams. It was the team's third top-five placing in the last four years at the national contest.

In addition, Penn State's second Dairy Cattle Judging Team, members of which are likely to compete in Madison later this year, captured second place among 18 schools at the North American Livestock Expo Judging contest.

Whilethese activities might seem to be intended only for agriculture majors, Bachman, who is majoring in actuarial science, explained why she finds the team engaging. "I grew up on a farm so a lot of this was something I was just accustomed to," she says. "However, I feel that the reasoning and argumentative abilities I gained from these competitions will help me in the business world as well. The decision-making abilities I gain here will carry into any field I go into."

During the fall 2005 semester, five students did well competing as members of the Penn State Horse Judging Team at the All-American Quarter Horse Association (AQHA) Congress Contest in Columbus, Ohio, and at the AQHA World Championship Contest in Oklahoma City, Okla.

The team was comprised of Allison Giraldi of Hillsborough, N.J., a junior majoring in animal sciences; Kathryn Peters of Pennsylvania Furnace, a senior majoring in animal sciences; Megan Brown of Fairview, a senior majoring in animal sciences; Sara McKee of Etters, a senior majoring in animal sciences; and Sarah Gaydos of Merrittstown, a senior majoring in animal bioscience. Additionally, Carrie Nelson of Pittsburgh, a junior majoring in animal sciences, and Stacie Domer of Indiana, a junior majoring in agricultural and extension education, worked with the group.