Greenwood High School, 1916 Agriculture, Greenwood, Wisconsin

Winning Stock Judging Team

Pictured are: Ernest Nelson, Fred Behrens and Norman Colby

(Please contact us if you ID the people in this photo)

The Contest

Short1y before Christmas vacation, Mr. Knipfel, our agriculture instructor, announced before the animal husbandry class that the state had started a stock judging contest. The state had been divided into a number of districts and the winners of these district contests were to go to Madison to a state stock judging contest. The work was to follow Craig’s stock judging book as nearly as possible, so we immediately began studying Craig’s.

When school started after vacation, we thought that we knew about all there was to be known in regard to stock judging. We visited a number of the places about the town, judging the cattle and also scoring them, in our district were Stanley, Chippewa Falls, Mondovi, Gilmanton and Greenwood. It was decided to hold the contest on January 29, at Eau Claire. At the beginning of the week before the contest, Mr. Knipfel announced that the three students who in his judgment had done the best work, would represent Greenwood. On the following Monday, Mr. Knipfel announced the team, who were the following: Ernest Nelson, Fred Behrens and Norman Colby.
On January 29, the team and Mr. Knipfel went to Withee, where they boarded the evening train for Eau Claire.

We arrived there at about ten o’clock. After going to the Eau Claire House and registering, we went up town to take in the sights. We walked around for a short time and then went into a bowling alley. After bowling a while all seemed to be in favor of a lunch, so a cafe was visited and a good feed partaken of. We left the cafe and went to the hotel where we were shown to our rooms.

After breakfast the next morning’, we strolled around town until half past nine, ending up at the hotel, where we met, the stock judging teams from Stanley and Chippewa Falls. The Mondovi team soon came and from them we learned that the Gilmanton team could not be present because of bad roads. A Ford auto truck took us out to the farm of A. H. Hosely where we judged a class of aged Holstein cattle. Twenty minutes was the time allotted us to judge a class. We then went back to town and after dinner, we were addressed by Mr. W. K. Coin, a banker and farmer of Eau Claire. In the afternoon we were taken out to his farm where we judged aged Guernsey cattle, yearling heifers. Percheron mares, Poland-China brood sows, and a class of young pigs. We finished our work and then took a walk through his farm buildings which are among the most modern in the state. As it was then getting late, we returned to Eau Claire in the evening we went to the Y. M. C. A. building and watched a basketball game between Menomonie and Eau Claire. The latter were the victors. At ten o’clock, we took the train for Owen and from there were brought to Greenwood.

The next morning a telephone call came from Eau Claire. It announced the Greenwood team winners of the contest with Mondovi, a close second. The reward for our labors was a chance to enter the state stock judging contest which was to be held at Madison, beginning February 10.

On February ninth the team accompanied by Mr. Knipfel, left for Madison. We took the Foster train as far as Fairchild, where we changed cars and went through to Madison. At the depot there, we were met by Vern Varney and Robert Grashorn, graduates from the
Greenwood High School. They took us to the Y. M. C. A. building for supper. Afterwards we went down to the State Capitol building. Mr. Varney directed us about the building, and after seeing everything that we possibly could, we went to a theater to spend the rest of the evening. When the show was over we went hack to the Y. M. C. A. for we were all tired.

In the morning we first visited the Agronomy building, Agricultural hail, and Dairy and Sheep barn. Then we went to the stock judging pavilion where we were to do our judging. As there were three men in each team, we were divided into three classes, each class having one man from each team. Division A, was given the class of Jersey cattle, division II, the mixed breeds of cattle, and division C, was taken over to the sheep pavilion to judge two classes of hogs, one Berkshires, and the other Bushires and Duroe Jersey mixed. A soon as a division had finished its class, it proceeded to the next until all the cattle and hogs had been judged by each division. By the time all had finished, it was noon, so we left for our boarding place with orders to return on the following morning. In the afternoon. Mr. Varney and Mr. Grashorn took us through a number of the University buildings. First we went to the dairy building which interested us very much as we had been studying about dairying. As we were about to leave the building, Mr. Knipfel looked around and asked where Ernest was. None of us had seen him for quite a while. A thorough search was made but no Ernest was to be found, so we decided to go on without him. From the dairy building we went to the stock judging pavilion where an exhibit was being held. On entering the pavilion we were very much surprised to see our missing team mate. After looking over the Agricultural exhibit, we visited the Engineering building, Chemistry laboratory, Physics laboratory, and the heating plant of the University buildings. It was now getting late; we went back to our rooms. The evening was spent at a. theatre.

Friday morning we arose somewhat late, went to a cafe for breakfast, and after a stroll, went to the Sheep pavilion, where we were to finish our stock judging. We had only two classes of horses left so they allowed us to work together. The first class was a class of old draft horses and the second was a class of young draft horses. After dinner our escorts took us through the Armory which contains the University athletic apparatus, After seeing this building, we all decided that we would like to go to Madison to finish oar education. Mr. Varney, Mr. Grashorn and Mr. Knipfel now went to a lecture on alfalfa. The other three of us decided to take in the town. After walking the rest of the afternoon, we went to our rooms and waited for the others, who soon arrived. They told us the lecture was good and we missed a lot by not being there, but of course w knew they had missed the most by not being with us. After supper we took in another show. At about half past one that night, we left for Greenwood, having enjoyed a very pleasant tune and wishing we could have staid longer.

Norman Colby.