Correction appended

Don Shrubshell photo

Chuck Miller, second from left, an agricultural education teacher at Hickman HIgh School, works with Hickman FFA members, from left, Zac Kerley, Andrew Perry and Kurstin Stephenson last month at the Foremost Dairy Center near Midway. The students are judging cattle in preparation for the National FFA Convention Oct. 22 to 25 in Indianapolis.

You might not be able to judge a book by its cover, but you can tell a lot about a Holstein dairy cow by looking at her: Body angles, udder size and hooves all help indicate whether she will be a good milk producer.

Three Columbia Public Schools students are becoming pretty good judges of dairy cattle as they gear up for the National FFA Convention in Indianapolis this month.

The team - composed of Hickman juniors Andrew Perry, Zac Kerley and Kurstin Stephenson and led by agriculture teacher Chuck Miller - is the first dairy judging team from Columbia to take first place at state since 1993.

"I’m excited," Andrew said. "It’s something Columbia doesn’t do very often. It’s neat to put our names on the board and say, ‘We’re doing it.’ "

Joining them will be the state champion poultry judging team composed of Rock Bridge senior Laura Matera and junior Kelsey Robinson, Hickman sophomore Cooper Martin and Columbia Independent School junior Brianne Abramovitz.

It has been five years since a poultry team from Columbia earned a spot in the national contest, team sponsor Kevin Duncan said.

It takes a critical eye, a convincing spiel and a healthy dose of confidence to judge an FFA competition.

When judging poultry, for instance, students are expected to separate the best egg-laying chickens from those that might be better on a dinner table. They then have to judge the quality of meat carcasses and be able to grade eggs based on imperfections.

Finally, students have to defend their decisions to a panel of experts.

That has been a challenge for Brianne, who said she was pretty shy before participating in the FFA contest.

"I had a hard time opening up and was afraid to talk in front of people," she said. "This has helped my communication in general, just being able to explain ideas and backing yourself up."

That skill will be beneficial regardless of whether students go into ag-related careers, Cooper said.

"You have to be confident to make people listen to what you say," he said. "Knowing how to talk to people is important when you’re rising up the ladder."

Although the poultry team members aren’t necessarily interested in pursuing related careers, the three members of the dairy cattle team are eyeing futures in agriculture. All three have worked on beef cattle farms and wouldn’t mind owning their own herds.

"There’s a lot more career opportunities today than ever before," Miller said. "Students are starting to think of it a little differently."

Along with the other skills she has learned from judging poultry, Laura has become more confident in the country’s food supply.

"People don’t think about what it takes to get food to the table," she said. "They do a really good job processing everything that comes to consumers and making sure it’s top-quality."

The dairy cattle and poultry judging teams follow another Columbia FFA team that took first place at a national convention in Springfield over the summer.

The grasslands judging team was required to identify about 80 plants and determine whether specific fields match their uses, sponsor Larry Henneke said.

The grasslands team from Columbia has won first at nationals four times in seven years. This year’s team heads to state competition next week.

This page has been revised to reflect the following correction:

SECOND THOUGHTS: Friday, October 10, 2008

A story about the FFA dairy and poultry judging teams on yesterday’s School Matters page should have identified the cattle as Holstein, not Hereford.

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