FALCON HEIGHTS, Minn. — Not many dairy exhibitors in the U.S. walk away from a state fair 4-H experience with a check with four digits — an award-size usually designated for the fair’s market livestock auctions. Thanks to a program that just finished its 17th year, the Minnesota 4-H Dairy Showcase handed out 25 awards of this nature to 4-H dairy exhibitors at the Minnesota State Fair.
The Minnesota 4-H Dairy Showcase is a program for dairy exhibitors who receive blue or purple ribbons at the Minnesota State Fair. The Top 25 entrants in the senior division of grades ninth and up receive cascading cash prizes. The Top 10 younger students in grades six through eight receive the Rising Star recognition and a cash prize.
Students are ranked via a point system. Success in the dairy quiz bowl is one of the categories in which applicants earn points. Other scores come from leadership profiles and dairy judging contest participation and placings. On state fair show day, results on a 4-H member’s dairy animal and showmanship placings also earn points for showcase applicants.
For George Elsenpeter of Wright County, the $1,550 he received was partly due to encouragement from another showcase winner and fellow Wright County 4-H member. Elsenpeter had been to the state fair but had never applied for the showcase. His participation on a Wright County dairy quiz bowl team that traveled to a national competition helped him secure 23rd place among the 25 winners. His teammate, Mason Glessing, was 14th in the showcase and earned $2,400.
Elsenpeter was on Wright County’s judging team and said he felt his profile describing many years of local 4-H club leadership helped his score.
“I was delighted,” Elsenpeter said.
He said the win will motivate his younger brothers and sisters to be involved. His parents, Dan and Erica, have a dairy farm near Maple Lake.
Elsenpeter plans to invest his prize money towards college tuition at North Dakota State University, where he is a freshman in ag economics this fall. He also plans to join the dairy club and be involved in dairy judging.
Elsenpeter said 4-H dairy involvement has served him well, especially now that he is in college.
“(I enjoy) learning more about the industry, hanging out with kids who like the same things I do,” he said. “Having that background, having all that knowledge of my industry is helpful.”
Kayla Visser of McLeod County was the showcase’s first-place winner, taking home $4,800. Two members of the Frericks family from Stearns County — Dan and Monika—placed second and ninth, respectively. Sisters Emily and Ashley Mellgren from Wabasha County placed third and 17th, respectively.
In addition to the 25 4-H members who were among the showcase winners, 10 dairy exhibitors were named Rising Stars with an award of $500. Among them was Lauren Berning of Otsego, whose dairy interests span three counties.
“We live in a metro area, so we don’t have many dairy farmers in our county,” Berning said. “I wanted to learn more about dairy cows and how I could be a better dairy farmer.”
That led Berning, whose parents, Tom and Kristen, milk with robots in Sherburne County, to seek out participation in dairy judging and quiz bowl in Stearns County. She has also spent three years as a dairy ambassador in Wright County.
Berning not only took home money from the showcase but was a Beginning Exhibitor Livestock Learning Experience grant recipient. BELLE Grants are awarded to a small group of livestock project members for their first state fair trip. She also earned a purple ribbon for a non-livestock 4-H exhibit at the fair — a poster highlighting her club’s grant-funded cheese curd donation to a local food shelf.
Like her fellow showcase winners, Berning is making plans for continued dairy project success.
“I will probably save (the money) to buy a cow or a calf so I can get more future blue ribbons,” she said. “Or maybe I’ll buy clipping supplies or show things.”
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