Putnam County 4-H Members 
Hardee County FFA Members
From July 16-18, the Oklahoma State University Department of Animal and Food Sciences hosted their annual Big 3 Field Days Livestock Judging Contest in Stillwater, Okla., where youth from four Florida counties with a history of proven success, competed representing the Sunshine State.
“The three day event is the most time-honored summer field day in the country and draws approximately 1,500 youth to OSU to participate in livestock judging and other educational events. More than 100 awards and scholarships are given each year,” noted the information packet. The contest is split into three days, with sheep, beef and swine “contests” on each.
Florida was represented by youth from Putnam, Charlotte and Pasco County 4-H as well as Hardee FFA.
Representing Putnam County 4-H was your current state champion livestock judging team, that included Dathan Guthrie, Emily Lands and Clayton Brauman (left photo).
As a team, they placed sixth in sheep, tenth in beef and tenth overall in the senior 4-H division. Individually, Guthrie placed fifth in beef, fourteenth in sheep and sixteenth overall, Lands placed sixteenth in sheep and was in the top 50 for beef and overall, and Brauman was in the top 50 for swine.
Also in the senior 4-H division were Emily Jennings from Pasco County 4-H and Rachel Dunleavy from Charlotte County 4-H as individuals.
Jennings brought home the top finish for Florida, placing sixth in beef, seventh in swine, in the the top 50 for sheep and sixth overall individually, while Dunleavy placed in the top 50 for sheep, swine and overall, with 36 teams and 178 individuals competing in the senior 4-H division.
Representing Hardee FFA in the junior FFA division was a team made up of Dean Clark, Drew Beattie, Samantha Shackleford and Madisyn Hines. As a team, they placed tenth in sheep, in the top 50 for beef, in the top 100 for sheep and twenty-seventh overall. Individually, Dean Clark placed within the top 50 for sheep, and Beattie placed within the top 100 for sheep and swine, with 101 teams and 535 individuals competing in the junior FFA division.
In the senior FFA division, Hardee SR FFA was represented with two teams, your current state champion team of Jake Henderson, Griffin Clark, Kipp Cooper and Hunter Sellers, who placed in the top 50 for sheep and swine, and fortieth overall as as team, along with a second team of Emery Smith, Jansen Walker and Jamie Walker (right photo).
Individually, Henderson placed within the top 100 for swine and overall, and Griffin Clark placed within the top 50 for sheep, with an impressive 148 teams and 751 individuals competing in the senior FFA division.
Congratulations to each of these outstanding youth on their accomplishments at what was one of the largest judging contests ever, and best of luck to Putnam County 4-H and Hardee FFA as they continue preparing for the national contests this fall.
Livestock judging is an event designed to test the evaluation and decision making skills of students through evaluating market and breeding beef cattle, swine, sheep and meat goats as well as the defense of their placings via oral reasons. For more information and complete results, visit www.judgingcard.com/Results/Events.aspx?ID=11397.
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(Photos from Hardee Sr. FFA and UF IFAS Putnam County 4-H on Facebook)