A storybook ending for 4-H team in Scotland
The DeWitt County 4-H Livestock Judging Team of Jackie Finney, Percy Torrez, Wyatt Luddeke, and Nathan Oakes returned last Thursday night from their competition at the Royal Highland Show in Scotland as double champions.
Cuero welcomed its international competitors home in style with a late-night police and fire escort from Walmart to the Texan. Friends and family cheered and hugged the county’s victorious team back from their trip to Scotland.
“We were all very glad to be home and to feel that love and support in the community,” Co-Coach Amanda Luddeke said.
Instead of competing as a team of four as they have for years in Texas, at the RHS they competed as two separate teams - and tied for First Place. Finney and Torrez partnered for competition as did Luddeke and Oakes.
“If I could have written the storybook ending to this year it would have been this – my team tying each other for first at the competition in Scotland,” Luddeke said on the team’s Facebook page.
She called it nothing short of divine intervention.
In individual placing, Oakes finished 3rd, Finney 5th, Torrez 7th, and Luddeke 10th.
Luddeke said they were treated well at both shows they at- tended as well as by the families that welcomed them to their farms.
“At the shows, we were welcomed as their international guests,” she said. “We were given pins to wear and we had a special place to go. They were very glad to have us, and that makes you feel really good.”
The team competed “just for fun” in a second livestock judging show and were able to include two other De-Witt County youth – Carley Metting and Connly Metting. The team of six finished 3rd in the extra competition.
Also during the 14-day trip, Anthony Netardus, who accompanied the team, celebrated the milestone of his 30th anniversary as DeWitt County Extension Agent. In his first year, Netardus accompanied a young Amanda Luddeke to national livestock judging
competition in Kansas City. “I feel like that was like icing on the cake, Anthony celebrating 30 years,” Luddeke
said, recounting the trip with her teammates and Netardus to Kansas City.
Now, with last year’s team winning in Colorado (and going to international) and this year's team winning state and qualifying for Louisville, he can claim teams as qualifying for all three national contests.
“I think that's pretty cool,” she said.
As for her impression of the farms they visited, Luddeke said there are differences in how they select their animals and what they place importance on.
“But there's this tribute to legacy, to raising animals and farming and being contributors to our agricultural industry that is very much the heart of what they do over there,” she said. “They're raising their families to carry on a tradition, and it's very much in the everyday life and things that they do. I feel like that's very much the way it is here.”
Luddeke said gaining a wider view of agriculture and the importance placed on it gave her hope.
“There's a whole world that embraces the agricultural community and understands the importance of it, and that gives me a lot of hope for our future,” she said.
Luddeke expressed appreciation for everyone that contributed to the team’s trip.
“I am humbled and grateful and feel very blessed to live in this community,” she said.
The 4-H Livestock Judging Team will be honored at the next Cuero City Council meeting at 5:00 on July 14, followed by a reception at the municipal library.
