Lodi students win big at AgFest
It was a different kind of AgFest this year. Instead of an in-person, weeklong competition where young agriculturalists could mingle and trade notes, it was an online event stretching over a weekend.
That didn’t stop 4-H and FFA members from the Lodi area from turning out to represent their clubs.
“It was different,” said Samantha Asmus, 11, who raised sheep for her projects for Alpine-Victor 4-H this year.
Instead of showing their animals in person, the soon-to-be sixth-grader and her peers put together video entries for the annual junior livestock show and auction. And instead of bidding in person, buyers used an online auction format to make their purchases.
Asmus has been in 4-H for two years now, and this is her second year at AgFest. For her hard work, she earned Supreme Champion Ewe and Champion Wether Dam in the Breeding Sheep category, along with Reserve Supreme Market Lamb in the Market Sheep category.
While last year’s in-person event was more fun, she said, she enjoyed this year as well. The biggest challenge was not putting together her video entry — though that was a chore — but raising her lamb.
“You have to try and get it to the certain weight that it has to be at, and you have to halter-break it,” she said.
Kenna DeBenedetti, also a member of the AlpineVictor 4-H, agreed that this year’s virtual event was a change.
“I’m just glad we got the opportunity to do it,” she said.
DeBenedetti, who is about to enter her sophomore year at Lodi High School, took home Champion Buck in the Breeding Rabbits category, as well as Reserve Champion Meat Pen in the Market Rabbits category.
She learned what traits the judges were looking for in a good rabbit at last year’s event, she said, so when it came time to make her video for this year, those were the traits she focused on.
Like Asmus, the challenge for DeBenedetti was raising her animals. She had to time breeding her rabbits carefully, so that she could be sure to be home when the doe had her litter, in case of any problems.
DeBenedetti ended up breeding two litters of rabbits, choosing three to keep for her own meat pen rabbit project and selling the others to her fellow club members.
Both Asmus and DeBenedetti said they would continue to participate in 4-H and AgFest, even if the COVID-19 pandemic means the event is held online again.
(“I hope it’s not,” Asmus said.)
Both girls encourage other local students to give 4-H or FFA a try.
“I love it, and I think any kid should do it,” DeBenedetti said. “It’s so much fun.”
“It’s fun,” Asmus agreed. “It’s just a lot of work.”
Several other Lodi-area students earned honors at AgFest this year:
• Jaylene Brown, Live Oak 4-H: Champion Handler, Dog Show; Reserve Champion Purebred Ewe, Breeding Sheep; Reserve Champion Purebred Ram, Breeding Sheep.
• Magen Caldwell, Tokay Colony 4-H: Reserve Champion Percentage Doe, Boer Goat; Reserve Champion Fullblood Doe, Boer Goat.
• Phoenix Edwards, Tokay Colony 4-H: Reserve
Supreme Champion, Dairy Goat; Reserve Senior Champion Nigerian Dwarf, Dairy Goat.
• Mason Ehlers, Lodi FFA: Champion Meat Pen, Market Rabbit.
• Lucia Frederick, Live Oak 4-H: Outstanding 4-H Horticulture Exhibitor; Best of Show, Agricultural Panels and Displays.
• Gauge Goehring, Tokay Colony 4-H: 4-H Yorkshire Champion, Market Swine.
• Emma Graham, Oak View 4-H: Reserve Supreme Champion, Market Goat.
• Julie Hernandez, Tokay Colony 4-H: Reserve Champion Recorded Grade, Dairy Goat.
• Jakob Hixson, Live Oak 4-H: Champion Obedience, Dog Show; Champion Rally, Dog Show.
• Alyse Jackson, AlpineVictor 4-H: Reserve Champion Single Fryer, Market Rabbit.
• Kyle Mann, Lodi FFA: FFA Duroc Reserve Champion, Market Swine.
• Cereya Mettler, Lodi FFA: Reserve Champion, Market Sheep.
• Lily Mogler, Tokay FFA: Reserve Champion Boar, Cavies.
• Luke Perry, Alpine-Victor 4-H: 4-H AOB Reserve Champion, Market Swine.
• Trevor Schmiedt, Alpine-Victor 4-H: Reserve Supreme Champion Ewe, Breeding Sheep; Reserve Champion Wether Dam, Breeding Sheep.
• Shelby Terra, AlpineVictor 4-H: Reserve Supreme Champion (both Buck and Doe), Breeding Rabbit.