MISSISSIPPI STATE – Mississippi State University animal and dairy science majors maintained the university’s tradition of excellence in dairy competitions with a gold award at the Ninth Annual North American Intercollegiate Dairy Challenge.

The event was held April 9-10 in Visalia, Calif., hosted by California Polytechnic State University and California State University, Fresno. MSU was one of 28 teams from the United States and Canada that competed.

MSU’s team was coached by animal and dairy science assistant professor Stephanie Hill. Other team members were Angel Henderson, Elaine Suever, Samantha Vitale and Andrew Nelson.

The event was a two-day competition for dairy science students to apply theory and learning to a real-world dairy. The teams spent their first day at one of four assigned dairies receiving information about the dairy, its production and farm management. Teams inspected the dairy and interviewed herd managers. They then developed a farm analysis and presentation, including recommendations for nutrition, reproduction, milking procedures, animal health, housing and financial management.

They made their presentations to the panel of judges the second day and answered questions fielded from the judges. Presentations were evaluated based on the students’ analysis and recommendations. A set of platinum first and second place awards were given at each dairy, along with gold and silver awards.

MSU’s team won a gold award for its analysis and presentation of information on the visit to Hollywood Dairy.

Contact: Dr. Stephanie R. Hill, (662) 325-8773