USU Students Participate in North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge

Dr. Allen Young
USU Extension Dairy Specialist
Four students from Utah State University participated in the North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge competition in East Lansing, Michigan in April. Members of the team were Nick Buttars and Spencer Gibbons from Lewiston, Staci Zilles from College Ward, and Bruce Richards from Erda, Utah. They competed against 24 teams representing 22 institutions from across the U.S.

The competition entailed visiting a commercial dairy for 90 minutes, analyzing its records, then making a presentation in front of a panel of industry judges as to what they felt the dairy was doing well and where opportunities existed for improvement. Students were judged on how correctly they had evaluated the dairy.

Comments from the students suggested that this type of competition was extremely valuable to them. One student even said that it was the highlight of the four years spent at the university. If you want to find out more about this program, I urge you to read the article in the June 2003 issue of Hoard’s Dairyman (pg. 434). The photo in this article is of three of the four team members from U.S.U. This program is totally industry supported and run. Personally, I would like to thank those companies that are a part of this competition. It is a great program, and I enjoyed the experience of coaching the U.S.U. team.