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PRAIRIE FARM, Wis. – When Justyne Frisle placed ninth at the Wisconsin 4-H Dairy Judging Contest earlier this year, she qualified for the team that represented Wisconsin at the North American International Livestock Exposition in Louisville, Kentucky, in November.
“It was my first national contest,” Frisle said of competing in Louisville. “I was kind of nervous; I didn’t want to do really badly. My goal was for our team to win, to do well in reasons and to hopefully place in the top 20.”
Frisle and her teammates placed second overall and won the reasons portion of the contest. Frisle topped not only the reasons portion of the contest individually but was also the overall high individual.
“It was a really good contest; it ran really smoothly, and the classes were really good,” Frisle said. “I was kind of blown away by how many people were competing. I still cannot believe that I won it.”
Frisle is the 18-year-old daughter of Dean and Leslie Frisle of Prairie Farm in Barron County where their family milks 65 cows. Frisle is a senior at Prairie Farm High School and is planning to study dairy science at either the University of Wisconsin-Madison or the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities.
Frisle’s teammates were Brady Bleck of Sheboygan County, Emma Dorshorst of Wood County and Abigail Powers of Dunn County. Coaches Matt Dorshorst and Jim Powers accompanied the team to the contest.
The competition consisted of 10 placings classes and four sets of oral reasons Nov. 7. The results were announced the next morning.     
“After the contest was finished, I compared placings with my teammates and felt pretty good,” Frisle said. “We all had similar placings, with just a few pairs switched around. I had felt really good about two of my sets of reasons too.”
Contest day was long for Frisle, who said she was the last contestant to finish giving reasons Sunday afternoon.
“I almost fell asleep while I was studying my reasons,” Frisle said. “It was such a long day, and I had to wait until the very end to give my last set of reasons.”
Although this was her first national contest, Frisle has participated in dairy judging almost longer than she can remember.
“I always tagged along when my older sister was showing or going to dairy judging,” Frisle said. “We hosted dairy judging practices on our farm, and I would listen at those. I’m not even sure when I actually started thinking about judging; it has just been something that I’ve always been around.”
Frisle said her parents and grandparents have been instrumental in teaching her the finer points of dairy judging. She also credits her long-time dairy judging coach, Steve Fronk, for helping pique and maintain her interest.
Frisle has high hopes for her county judging team in 2022.
“Our team was really young this year,” she said. “Two of our members were competing as seniors and giving reasons for the first time, so hopefully they’ll be more confident next year, having done it for a year.”
Oral reasons were initially a bit of a stumbling block for Frisle.
“I thought I had to memorize my reasons, and I could never do it,” Frisle said. “Then I started to realize I needed to memorize the cows not the reasons. If I was able to see the cows in my mind and talk about them as I saw them, it made it a lot easier.”
That is the one piece of advice Frisle said she would share with a new competitor: Make sure your notes are accurate descriptions of the cows rather than a full set of written reasons.
“I really enjoy being able to spend time with friends and being around cows,” Frisle said. “I think it is interesting to see how different people think. I like the competition too.”

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