Back From National Holstein Convention

June 26-29, 2010

Bloomington, Minnesota

The National Convention in Minnesota saw the largest delegation of adults and youth that we have had at a convention in recent memory. Juniors attending part or all of the convention were: Brittany Groves, Kristin Luttrell, Austin & Blake Moreland, Jacob & Karlin Peters, Taylor & Kiera Groves, Lora & Blake Wright, Jake & Rosie Lenz, Steven Nelson, Sophia Geppert, Bailee, Lauren & Taylor Whitehead.

All of the kids competed in something except for about 5 and 4 of those were too young!! So, things are sure looking up for Missouri. It is great to see such a wide range of participation in the group. It was also a great time for the kids to not only get to know one another better, but to meet and get to know other juniors from other states.

The group as a whole was very supportive of each other and their competitions. They went and watched and cheered each other on. That is how it is supposed to be. We've got a great group of kids coming up to represent us in two years in Missouri!!

First Time Convention Report by Karlin Peters

Whether it was your first or seventh convention, Minnesota had us all hooked! I went with my cousins, Austin and Blake Moreland, and my brother, Jacob Peters. It was the first National Convention for all of us and the seventh one for my mom.

Saturday was competition day; we were all participating in an activity. I was doing a speech; Blake was doing Dairy Jeopardy and a folding display. Jacob and Austin were going to compete in the Dairy Bowl on Monday morning. Saturday was a day of competing and hanging out with friends. Jacob said, “It was a good time to get to know the people from your state even better and to meet new people from other states.” That night there was a junior dance and pizza party.

Sunday was Host Day! I chose to do the Mississippi River Tour. We rode a river boat down the Mississippi River to Lake Pepin and went an Eagle Center where we learned a little bit about eagles and got to see two. I got to participate in an activity where I had to flap my “wings”, and then the speaker measured my arm span. I had the wing span of a wild turkey! We also visited the Sapa Ska Farm, which was a tie stall farm and entirely different from what we were used to. Austin said, “I learned different ways to dairy. If I was to start my own dairy farm, I could do it in a way different than my family.” Both Jacob and Blake said that the Eagle Center was their favorite part of the tour. My favorite part was the boat ride.

That night we went to the Minnesota Arboretum. Kristen Lutrell, Lora Wright, Kiera Groves and I were a team in the Amazing Race. There were different stations that you had to find and then do an activity there. It took us an hour and fifty minutes, but we got done!

Monday morning we watched Dairy Bowl. Our Missouri team got to the fourth round and lost out. That afternoon we went to the Mall of America with Steven Nelson, Rosie Lenz, and Jake Lenz. We spent most of our time there at the amusement park! We rode lots of different rides and had lots of fun. When we were done at the amusement park, we ate dinner at Rainforest Café. Later that night there was another junior dance.

The next afternoon was the Junior Luncheon. The Missouri banner, made by Kiera Groves, won second place. This was neat because it was also her tenth birthday.

I think the most impressive thing at convention was the Dairy Bar. Jacob Peters said, “It is jut this big dairy buffet, all you can eat for free!” I must have had 7 ice cream bars while I was there. Sherri Peters said, “The focus has certainly moved more towards juniors since the last convention I went to in 2001.” Minnesota had a convention full of laughs and good times. I encourage all of you who have never been to a National Convention to go to Virginia next year. By: Karlin Peters

Scrapbook

Missouri Juniors had another successful year, placing in two different competitions. Our State Scrapbook, which was prepared by Brittany Groves, looked great! Ours did not place in the top three but we were proud of what Brittany put together of the accomplishments of Missouri Juniors for 2009!

Host Day

Minnesota Convention by: Lora Wright

Since it was my 4th year attending a national convention I had others to compare with. Minnesota has been one of the best ones I have been to in a long time. We had 17 Missouri juniors there! More than we have had in a long time.

Day 1: On the first day of convention it was Jeopardy. We had two jeopardy contestants: Blake Morland and Bailee Whitehead. Bailee got 2nd and Blake didn’t place but did great. Congrats!

At around 1:00 pm Karlin Peters, Bailee, and I went in for the speech orientation. Right before the orientation Gail Groves who is my hair dresser at home did my hair at convention. My hair was really curly and cute too!

I was the 3rd person to give my speech. My title was “If Cows Could Talk”. Karlin was near the end and her title was “The World Without Milk” and Bailee was last and her title was “The Dairy Price Stabilization Program”. I think we all did a great job! Congrats to you speech givers!

Day 2: Day 2 was host day. There were two tours. One tour was two farms and a visit to the Bonnie Mohr studio and Glenmark Genetics. The 2nd tour was the tour I went on with most of the juniors. We rode this paddle boat and it moved really slow. It was really fun though. We went to the National Eagle Center. That was really cool. We saw two eagles. One is the one on the Minnesota Veterans License plate. Her name is Harriet. The other one was a male and he ate a rat and it almost got dropped on my brother! Gross, but thankfully he moves fast! We went to Sapa Ska farms. They had huge cows. Some of them barley fit in the tie stalls. Brittany Groves was almost as tall as the milk pipeline.

After the tours we went to the Minnesota Landscape Arboretum. It was really fun. We did the “Amazing Race” and Kristin Lutrell, Karlin Peters, Kiera Groves, and me were on a team and our name was the Kool Kows. We had to eat Span at one station and read pedigrees at another. The problem with that was that no one knew how to read pedigrees. We didn’t do so well. Brittany Groves, Steven Nelson and Taylor Groves were another team. Kristin said that they would fly through it like no other and they did (imagine that).

Day 3: It’s dairy bowl day and the sale. Our dairy bowl team did good. We lost to Illinois, then won to Utah and lost to New England in the double elimination. The sale was a huge success for Minnesota. They had so many people at the sale that they couldn’t all fit in the barn. The cow that brought the most was $91.000. We have friends that asked why in the world would you spend 91,000 on a cow? Not a bad question.

Day 4: The last day and the most nerve racking on of all I think. We had dairy bowl finals in the morning and the Jr Forum. That is where we vote for JAC (Jr. Advisory Committee). We bring up new ideas and concerns that we have then we have the Jr Banquet where we recognize all the winners. This year we placed 2nd with the banner done by Kiera Groves and family. It was also her 10th Birthday. She had a great day! We all had a great day!!

If I could pick one thing out of the whole convention that I liked it would be the dairy bar! They had great stuff and the ice cream was awesome. We had ice cream for breakfast, lunch and dinner. Minnesota had a convention that hooked us all! See you all at Field Day!
By: Lora Wright

2010 Banner Contest

Kiera Groves convinced her dad that their family should 'tackle' the banner this year. They took on the challenge and worked hard to combine the convention themes for Minnesota and Missouri to make an interesting banner that was both eye catching and simple. The icing on the cake was that Kiera won 2nd with the Banner on her 10th Birthday. Congratulations Kiera, Taylor, Gail & Brad Groves!!

2010 Dairy Jeopardy Contest